The Political Economy of Football V2

Barcelona actually reported a pre-tax loss of €8m in 2024/25, though this was significantly better than the prior year’s €204m deficit, reports the Swiss Ramble.  This was largely driven by a steep reduction in exceptional items, which fell from €225m to €10m, mainly due to movement in economic levers. As a reminder, Barcelona had pulled these famous levers (“ palancas ”) to raise funds, albeit at the expense of sacrificing income in the future. As it stands, Barcelona have made around €850m from pulling these financial levers, split between TV rights €665m, Barça Vision €112m and Personal Seating Licences €70m.   Looking at the five seasons between 2019/20 and 2023/24, Barcelona’s reported loss was €298m, but if the €842m gain from economic levers is excluded, the underlying loss would have been a cool €1.1 bln.   The good news is that on this basis Barcelona have actually posted profits in each of the last two seasons, first €20m in 2023/24, then €2m in 2024/25. In ...

Last season was the third for Derby County under the ownership of David Clowes, a local businessman and lifelong supporter, who bought the club out of administration in July 2022, splashing out around £55m in the process. As Clowes said, his purchase had “ended nine months of uncertainty and fear over the future of our club.”  The authoritative Swiss Ramble analyses the 2023/24 accounts. Following promotion to the Championship, Derby’s pre-tax loss narrowed from £14.2m to £11.1m. Revenue shot up £12.5m (64%) from £19.4m to a club record £31.9m, but this was more than offset by the increased cost of competing in the higher division, as operating expenses rose £15.0m (39%) from £38.2m to £53.2m. The net improvement was thus thanks to a significant increase in profit on player sales, which more than doubled from £4.6m to £10.3m. The main driver of Derby’s revenue growth was the higher TV deal in the Championship, which led to broadcasting income more than quadrupling from £2.9m to...

West Ham are in a relegation battle.  No one gains financially from demotion, but it impacts some more than others. Existing cost bases play a big part, likewise a team’s ability to generate money by selling some faces that didn’t look out of place in the top tier. Beyond that, club owners come into play. Between 2015 and 2024, Championship clubs lost a collective £3.2billion, all of it (and a little more) funded by benevolent shareholders. Amounts required for recently relegated clubs can vary, but a general rule is that the longer you stay in the second tier, the more you’ll need to lean on an owner or two. One thing is for certain — if relegation comes, West Ham’s revenue will drop. That has been the case pretty much since the Premier League’s inception, but it has become more pronounced since 2016, when a new TV deal exploded onto the scene. Since then, only one club has seen post-relegation turnover fall by less than a third. That was Bournemouth in 2020-21, and even tha...

 Hearts made a net operating loss of £400,000 in 2024/25 despite increased turnover and European football.  However, it should be noted that  the 29 per cent investment made by Brighton owner Tony Bloom, shows up on the balance sheet rather than the profit and loss accounts:  https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/c33p83vll0yo In any case the loss is relatively modest compared with some English clubs.

Derby County lost £11.3m in 2024/25.   An increase in revenue saw a £3m reduction in losses compared with the previous year:  https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/c867vjlpl1vo Billionaire John Textor is said to be interested in acquiring the club if his bid for Sheffield Wednesday fails, but many fans think that his track record suggests he would not be a good fit for the club.

In 2017 Barcelona had posted six straight years of profits, where wages were less than 60 per cent of revenue and where those revenues were growing healthily — up €164m and 34 per cent in three seasons. Barcelona made a profit again in 2017-18, but its size, considering it included a world-record fee for Neymar, was miserly. The club booked a €20.1million pre-tax surplus but only after more than €200m in player profits. Operating performance collapsed, from a €10.5m profit in 2016-17 to a €176.8m loss  Before accounting for any of the other costs involved in running a club of Barca’s stature, 81 cents in every euro were gobbled up by football staff costs or the fees paid to bring players to the Camp Nou. And those other running costs were and are massive. The club very quickly became structurally unsound. In 2020-21, Barca recorded a €555.4million pre-tax loss, by a long way the worst financial result ever recorded by a football club. In June 2022, when Barca announced the sa...