The Political Economy of Football V2

Gemcorp, the London-based emerging markets asset manager, has been through many iterations and not a little controversy over the years. Is the next step the sunlit uplands of English League Two football? The firm headed by Bulgaria-born financier Atanas Bostandjiev appears to be backing an offer by a Brazilian investment group to invest in lossmaking Northampton Town Football Club, according to company filings. Gemcorp, Northampton Town, and the Brazilian investor did not respond to requests for comment from the Financial Times.  But they seem to be linked by public filings that point to a deal beyond the usual emerging markets fodder. We’ll lay it out here. Firstly, the Cobblers   have not had a good year. Relegated to League Two after a loss to Luton Town left them bottom of League One, they epitomise the financial challenges for teams trying to turn their fortunes around at these lower tiers of the English game. For the year to the end of June 2025, the club reported...

Recently I have suggested sports lawyer as a good career for an ambitious youngster, but there are other off the pitch options.  Professional football clubs’ share of UK hiring has tripled over the past five years, with a jump in demand for data experts as Britain’s top teams use their growing financial strength to expand their off-field operations. The clubs have emerged as a bright spot in an otherwise sluggish British jobs market, now accounting for more than seven in every 10,000 roles advertised, up from 2.4 per 10,000 in 2020, according to data from recruitment website Indeed. Data and analytics make up five per cent of the roles advertised by Premier League teams this year, according to job analytics firm Lightcast. This is double the share two years ago. The hiring boom has been fuelled by the deep pockets of Premier League clubs, which have seen revenues soar off the back of strong performances in European competitions and lucrative new commercial deals. “Data and anal...

Serie A is trying to close the financial gap on the Premier League.   It may be possible to narrow it, but a range of structural forces underpin the dominance of the EPL, Italian commentators admit:  https://football-italia.net/how-serie-a-close-1-billion-gap-premier-league/  

Chelsea have ended their search for a front-of-shirt sponsor by agreeing a one-year deal with internet financial platform company Circle. The club has been in talks with the American-based firm for several months and while the size of the investment remains undisclosed, sources have told  The Athletic  it is the going rate for a top Premier League club. Chelsea were looking in the region of £50-60 million ($67.9m-$81.5m) a year. While the initial contract is for the remainder of the season, there is an option to extend it for longer included in the agreement, according to club sources. USDC will now be displayed on the front of the men’s, women’s and academy shirts in all competitions from now on, starting with the matches this weekend. That means it will be seen for the first time at Chelsea men’s Premier League game at home to Brighton & Hove Albion on Sunday. USDC, according to its website, “is a stablecoin issued by Circle, fully reserved by cash and cash equiv...

So much was different at Selhurst Park for this opening home game of the season. Some of it has been enforced, but it begs the question of how much change Palace can withstand and, perhaps more pertinently, how quickly that can shift to familiarity again asks the New York Times ? From kick-off, the atmosphere was different. Gone were the Holmesdale Fanatics and the familiar, repetitive beat of the drum and their repertoire of orchestrated songs, after the group announced it would “stop all organised activity”. Gone are most of the modern add-ons to the Main Stand, a temporary hospitality suite built while the redevelopment of the stadium is ongoing, Selhurst didn’t just look different, but it felt different. The atmosphere ebbed and flowed more naturally but in the difficult moments it missed that orchestrated HF presence when it mattered most. By the fourth City goal, the visible empty seats told their own story. It was impossible for the process of following on from Glasner to...

It’s a long way in more ways than one from Zurich’s financial district to New Cross, but the authoritative Swiss Ramble provides his usual balanced and forensic analysis of Millwall’s finances.  Much more detail is available on his Substack page. Millwall’s ability to punch above its weight should no longer be a major surprise, given that Millwall have finished in the top ten of the Championship on no fewer than six occasions since they were promoted from League One in 2016/17. There’s normally a decent correlation between wages and performance in the football world, but Millwall comfortably outperformed their budget in 2024/25 by finishing 8th in the league, which was seven places better than their wages ranking of 15th.   In fact, Millwall have consistently punched well above their weight, as their league position has been better than their wage bill in all but one of the seasons since their promotion to the Championship, often by a considerable margin – and they we...