The Political Economy of Football V2

Posts

New Premier League deal?

Should a majority of Premier League clubs vote through the proposed hard spending cap for the 2025-26 season, it would not only aid the competitive nature of what is the world’s strongest domestic league, but also enforce a subtle shift in the perceived power base of English football. The cap idea is based on the concept of “anchoring”, designed to limit the amount of money any club can invest in their squad by tying it to a multiple (probably five) of what the division’s lowest earners get from the league’s centralised broadcast and commercial deals. The Premier League’s broadcast revenue sharing has always been, by European football standards anyway, a relatively noble meritocratic arrangement. It is less that sharing ratio which clubs such as Everton, West Ham and Palace are worried about — and more the consistent advantage clubs such as City, Chelsea and Manchester United have accrued from decades of participation in European football. Not only do the ‘Big Six’ tend to pock

Auditors warn Burnley about relegation risks

2022/23 is the second full season at Burnley under the ownership of Alan Pace, who has presided over a rollercoaster period, including one relegation and one promotion, since taking over Burnley in December 2020, when his company purchase an 84% majority shareholding. This represented a dramatic change in approach for Burnley, as the new owners put in very little of their own money, instead making the acquisition via a leveraged buy-out, placing debt on the club for the first time in years and using the club’s own cash reserves. Burnley’s auditors (and indeed the club itself) have noted a “material uncertainty” around the the ability to continue as a going concern if they were not able to achieve the forecast player sales and cost reductions in the event of relegation. Some might greet this as a classic case of “No shit, Sherlock”, but it’s clearly not ideal to see such a comment included in the accounts, as it’s relatively rare for an auditor to sound such a note of caution. F

The Forest penalties row

The problem with the award of penalties is that a lot of them are marginal decisions, even with VAR. This is particularly the case with the handball rule which has arguably been applied a little less stringently as the season has gone on, and probably rightly so. Analysis by the Match of the Day team last night suggested that two of Forest’s penalty claims at Everton were not justified, but the third one was. The referee should have been at least summoned to the screen to review his decision. It is easy to be critical of Nottingham Forest. And the manner in which they used social media to voice allegations over the integrity of match officials after Sunday’s 2-0 away loss against fellow relegation candidates Everton was arguably undermining the foundations of the game. Officials make mistakes, sometimes bad ones, but they may not qualify as clear and obvious errors and they indicate poor decision-making rather than bias. Yet while they have been criticised for the way the

Fan base is one of strongest assets of regional capital's club

The game at Boro tonight will help decide the chances of Leeds United returning to the top flight which is surely where a team located in a regional capital of the UK’s third lar gest metropolitan area deserves to be. However, they have also lost money in all three of their seasons in the Premier League, adding up to £82m, so promotion to the top flight is not always as beneficial as people might expect. There is a significant revenue increase, but costs also have to grow in order to compete at the higher level. However, there was an adverse Covid impact and Leeds’ £82m net loss during their three seasons in the Premier League was one of the better performances, as they were only outperformed by seven clubs. 2022/23 was the last year of Andrea Radrizzani’s time as Leeds’ majority shareholder after he bought the club in 2017, as he sold his 56% stake in September 2023 to the consortium led by 49ers Enterprises, who already held 44%. The investment arm of NFL franchise San Fran

Oxford face new stadium hassle

Oxford United's planning application for new stadium is being held up by a series of issues, essentially local politics. Traffic objections have been raised, but travelling in and around Oxford by car is a nightmare anyway. Ever been on the A34? A more general lack of empathy with football also seems to be in play. What it all seems to add up to is delay, but not a final block: https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/24265748.finance-chief-objects-oxford-united-football-club-stadium/

How far can Wrexham go?

The rapid rise from the fifth to the third tier of the English league system is only part of the Hollywood A list owners’ impact in Wrexham, as an expected balance sheet of £20million-plus for the current season will show when the club’s 2023-24 accounts are published some time next spring. They’ve also infused the town with a hope and sense of pride that had been eroded following the closure of traditional local industries such as the coal mines and steelworks. What nobody truly knows, though, is just how far up the football pyramid their Hollywood-star owners can take a club whose highest-ever league finish in their 159-year history is a relatively modest 15th in the second tier in 1978-79. The ambition is there. Reynolds made that much clear before a televised FA Cup fourth-round tie against Sheffield United in January 2023. “In 10 years’ time, the plan has and always will be the Premier League,” said the 47-year-old Canadian, who plays the title character in the Deadpool comi