The Political Economy of Football V2

Florentino Perez has been re-elected Real Madrid president, winning 65 per cent of the votes in an electoral victory over challenger Enrique Riquelme. It was the first time Madrid’s members had voted for the club president in 20 years, with the incumbent Perez elected unopposed in each of Madrid’s previous five electoral cycles, held in 2009, 2013, 2017, 2021 and 2025. Perez did not need to call this election. He had an active mandate until 2029, but announced the vote in a remarkable press conference on May 12, calling on his rivals to “come out of the shadows” and face him.   This snap decision was aimed at strengthening his power at the Bernabeu, after a second successive season without a trophy, and a string of difficult off-pitch setbacks. Although the 79-year-old has now won a new four-year mandate, it is arguable that his standing inside and outside the club has not improved. Few Madrid members even knew who Riquelme was before Perez’s rambling media event last month...

The authoritative Swiss Ramble applies his forensic financial skills to the case of Blackburn Rovers.  Few football fans have suffered as much as those in Blackburn from owners who have no clear strategy.   Coventry City suffered in the same way until a local businessman took control, but Blackburn have a huge debt pile. Venky's are the largest poultry integrator in Asia.   T hey handle everything from breeding, hatcheries, and feed to processed chicken and animal health products.    This is a smart market to be in as chicken is often the first meat consumed in middle income countries as they become more prosperous. Presumably when they bought Blackburn they saw it as adding to their profile and prestige, hope for a return to the Premier League.  However, this would require much more investment than they have been willing to provide. It will take a lot for the bad vibes around the club to go away, given the many issues faced by Rovers. Indeed, l...

Freshly relegated from the Premier League, West Ham United are entering the most crucial summer in their recent history. They will do so with a potentially damaging power vacuum at the top of the club: they have no permanent chief executive, no director of football; in April, Baroness Brady departed as vice-chairwoman; and on Saturday David Sullivan, the co-chairman, resigned too. Sullivan, 77 — who jointly bought a 50 per cent share in West Ham with the late David Gold in 2010 for £50million — is still the biggest shareholder at the club, with 38.8 per cent. He resigned claiming that “serious historic allegations” about him, allegations he “categorically denies”, were about to be made public.    He has said that he may sue the BBC, who propose to broadcast the allegations, for defamation. The Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky has a 27 per cent stake in the club and could increase his influence and shareholding in the coming months, but for more than 15 years, Sulliv...

The FT’s Lex column takes a sceptical look at the Pink Un’s interview with Real Madrid supremo Florentino Pérez a few pages away. What’s the biggest prize in football? Many fans would point to the golden trophy awaiting the winners of the World Cup, which kicks off next week. Real Madrid president Florentino Pérez, however, reckons there’s an even more prestigious honour: owning a piece of his club. Pérez wants the fan-owned club to sell a stake to outside investors for the first time. But, to allay fears among existing members, he insists any new owners won’t actually have real ownership. “It would be like a sponsorship,” he said in an interview with the FT this week. In some respects, Pérez — the architect of Real Madrid’s so-called Galácticos strategy of signing the world’s most famous players — is in tune with the times. Investors in Elon Musk’s rockets-meet-social-media conglomerate SpaceX have practically no say over governance, but the excitement surrounding its impending ...

Florentino Pérez said prospective investors will pay handsomely “for the satisfaction of having a relationship” with Real Madrid but receive nothing in return, as the president of the world’s richest football club pursues a contentious plan to bring in outside capital at a €10bn-plus valuation.   In a rare interview with the English-language press, which came as he fights for re-election, Pérez told the Financial Times that acquiring a stake in member-owned Real Madrid was not like buying a traditional asset that would yield a concrete financial return. “It would be like a sponsorship, let’s put it that way,” he said. “In other words, there are people who associate themselves with Real Madrid without expecting anything.” After presiding over a trophy-laden 22 years at the helm of Real Madrid, Pérez’s future lies in the hands of the club’s members after he called a presidential election last month to quell growing unrest around the club. While Real Madrid generated €1.2bn of rev...

Real Madrid president Florentino Pérez is in election mode. He says the Spanish football giants are worth €10bn and rising. “In a few years it will be worth €20bn,” he told the Financial Times this week. He’s not the only one who thinks his club’s value has hit 11 figures. Manchester City chair Khaldoon Al Mubarak, who also leads Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Mubadala, says the club has multiplied in value since Sheikh Mansour first bought in at an estimated valuation of $100mn-$120mn in 2008. “If you’re going to sell all this today in the market, you wouldn’t sell it for less than $10 billion minimum,” Khaldoon said in his annual interview published by City. He went on to say the club wasn’t for sale, just to be clear. So far only the Los Angeles Lakers have hit the $10bn mark, although the Seattle Seahawks might soon join them. Minority deals are getting done in that ball park too. But can a football team really be worth that much? Real Madrid have been crowned champion...