The Political Economy of Football V2

Newcastle United’s owners injected a further £95 million ($127.8m) into the club as equity in October, filings at UK Companies House show. The cash injection, Newcastle’s 11th since the club was taken over by a consortium led by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), takes owner funding at the club to almost £600m since that deal was struck in October 2021. The latest equity raise is the first at St James’ Park since the announcement, in April, that the PIF was ceasing its funding of LIV Golf, a rebel league which failed to turn masses of PIF funding into anything resembling a viable business. That had raised the idea PIF would seek to scale back other sporting investments too, and the fund sold a 70 per cent stake in Saudi Pro League club Al Hilal around the same time. With Newcastle having been heavily reliant on owner funding in the past half-decade, there were concerns purse strings may be tightened on Tyneside. The Athletic reported then that club figures were expecti...

Now is the era of the sports lawyer in football   Northridge have just 41 lawyers and a turnover of £16.5m. but they are increasingly movers and shakers. Founded in 2017, Northridge has grown into one of the largest dedicated sports practices in Europe. Its lawyers advise athletes, clubs, governing bodies, investors and sponsors across the commercial, regulatory and contentious sides of sport. Some of the world’s richest investors, including the Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, paid more than £2bn for a 38 per cent stake in Liverpool Football Club in August, amid speculation over the club’s future. Northridge advised K5 Sports, a fund backed by Bezos, on its part in the acquisition by 1892 Holdings, a consortium led by the former Queens Park Rangers chairman Amit Bhatia which also includes the Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin. The deal valued the club at £5.5bn. It could ultimately pave the way for a change of control at Anfield, with the consortium given first refusal to a...

Burnley’s return to the Premier League last season saw losses reduce, though the club would have posted a record deficit were it not for £38.8million ($52.3m) in damages received from the club’s successful lawsuit against Everton for rule breaches in 2021-22. Bank debt, first loaded onto Burnley by a leveraged buyout in December 2020, fell by a third on the back of the club’s ownership group providing almost £80m in funds. Such debt of £70million at the end of July 2026 was higher than the day of that takeover, though borrowings due to be repaid within one year reduced from £67.5m then to £45.9m by the beginning of this week. Whether it means Burnley’s overall debt has reduced by over £20m since the summer or there is further bank debt still due but over a longer term is unclear; at the time of publication, a spokesperson for the club’s ownership group had not responded to a request from The Athletic for an up-to-date figure for Burnley’s total bank debt. Either way, pressingly,...

In his Zurich fastness the Swiss Ramble has been diving down into his data base to produce fascinating statistics on Premier League and Championship finances.  Much more on his Substack page. In any statistical analysis ‘outliers’ that break the general pattern are always interesting and here that crown goes to Chelsea.   Whether all the money spent has paid off on the pitch is a moot point. The main source of cash is obviously revenue, though the difference between the Premier League and the Championship is stark. For example, in 2024/25 the £6.9 bln revenue in the top flight was more than seven times as much as the Championship’s £929m. One driver of investment in Premier League clubs is the very impressive revenue growth, especially compared to leagues in other countries. This has shot up by nearly a third (£7.1 bn) in the last 5 years, comparing £29.8 bn to the £22.7 bn in the preceding 5-year period.   The Championship has also grown in this time, but at a much...

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...