The Political Economy of Football V2

Hibernian's chief executive has admitted that the club's losses are not sustainable - £5.8 m in the past year and £18m over four seasons:  https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cly98887xkgo The chief executive said that the owning Gordon family could not be expected to continue to underwrite losses. The challenges faced by an historic club in Scotland's capital city reflect the financial challenges facing Scottish football as a whole. Another way of bringing extra cash to the club is to find an investment partner. Hibs did this with Bill Foley’s Black Knight group, generating £6m in return for a 25 per cent shareholding of the club in back in February 2024. However, the partnership with the Bournemouth owner ended “amicably” last year, with the Gordons buying the shares back. It is understood there was a difference in strategies. Since then, there has been speculation that other parties are keen to get involved at Easter Road - including Midtjylland owner Anders H...

When I first became aware of football in the early 1950s Hearts appeared to be one of the top Scottish sides and I liked the idea that they were known as ‘jam tarts’. A famed fund manager and one of the UK’s best-known sports gamblers are backing a data-driven bid to break Glasgow’s hold over Scottish football and deliver the first league title for a team outside the city in four decades. Heart of Midlothian sit top of the Scottish Premiership with just a third of the season left, as they seek to achieve what no club has done since Sir Alex Ferguson’s Aberdeen side in 1985 and end the dominance of Celtic and Rangers. The fortunes of Edinburgh-based Hearts, whose last title was in 1960, have been transformed under a new approach, with fresh investment and expertise, that has also outsourced key elements of player recruitment to computer algorithms. Central to Hearts’ rejuvenation has been the arrival of Tony Bloom, a high-stakes poker player and chair of Premier League Brighton ...

C eltic PLC on Friday reported a decline in profit for a first half that saw a "great deal of change and disruption", with the football club on its third manager of the season.   Celtic won a fourth Scottish league title in succession in May, but results on the pitch since have not been as emphatic this term. It believes there is "all to play for", however. In the six months to December 31, Celtic's pretax profit slumped 70% to £13.2 million from £43.9 million a year prior, with revenue sliding 29% to GBP59.4 million from GBP83.5 million.   Profit from player trading fell to £14.1 million from £21.5 million a year prior. The revenue decline, Celtic said, was due to it participating in the UEFA Europa League, the secondary European competition, instead of the Champions League like a year prior. In the current 2025/2026 season, Celtic exited the Champions League before the league phase began. In the prior season, it made it out of the league phase and into the Feb...

When I first became old enough to follow football in the early 1950s, Hearts stood out as a leading Scottish club. As we enter 2026, there is an unexpected sight in the Scottish Premiership, as Heart of Midlothian sit proudly on top of the table, ahead of the Glasgow giants. Hearts’ dramatic improvement this season owes a lot to Tony Bloom’s investment in the club in June, when the Brighton owner paid £9.86m for a 29% stake in the club in non-voting shares. This change was overwhelmingly voted through by 98.5% of Foundation Of Hearts (FOH) members. From an investor’s perspective, Hearts ticked many boxes, as the club is located in a wealthy city, attracting millions of tourists, while it has a of potential on the pitch. Following the successful completion of Bloom’s investment, Ann Budge announced that the time was right for her to stand down after an 11-year involvement. The club said that the “poor on pitch performance” had impacted the finances in 2024/25, though it had stil...

A useful review of the finances of Aberdeen FC in the wale of their European qualification.    Despite bringing in record sums in 2024, they still lost money:  https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/business/6796357/aberdeen-fc-inside-look-at-the-finances-of-the-dons/

A rare in depth look at the finances of a Scottish football club, Dundee FC (not to be confused with overlapping neighbours Dundee United:  https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/sport/football/dundee-fc/5265494/dundee-fc-finances-history/ Unsurprisingly, it is a loss making business but some potentially useful numbers are not available. The club has a new stadium project at Camperdown Park. Near neighbours Dundee United have an American owner who has invested £13m and were on the cusp of being profitable:  https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/sport/football/dundee-united/5265287/dundee-united-finances-history/

The authoritative Swiss Ramble reviews earnings from the various Uefa competitions. As you would expect, the two Champions League finalists earned the most: PSG received a hefty €145m, which is a new record for UEFA club competitions, while Inter’s pain from their paddling would have been slightly eased by €134m. Five other clubs trousered more than €100m, namely Barcelona €118m, Arsenal €118m, Bayern Munich €106m, Real Madrid €105m and Borussia Dortmund €101m, while Liverpool were just shy of three figures with €98m. Similarly, the two Europa League finalists earned the most in that competition, as Tottenham received €41m, as Big Ange continued his habit of winning a trophy in his second season at a club, while Manchester United got €36m as runners-up.   Income was even lower in the Conference League. Chelsea might have completed a clean sweep of European trophies, but their feat was only worth €22m this season, while Real Betis got €17m for reaching the final. Tottenham’s...

A takeover of Rangers by a US consortium including the investment arm of the San Francisco 49ers has been completed:  https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cqj7gj2w0k5o £20m will be made available for investment over the summer and it looks like a new era for Rangers fans. 49ers Enterprises are the owners of Leeds United.    This will mean Leeds have a new sister club contained within the 49ers' sporting sphere of influence. However, the running of the two clubs will remain largely separate, aside from standard industry information sharing and promoting strategy best practice. A spokesperson for 49ers Enterprises Global Football Group said: “The strength of our commitment, resources, and ambition for Leeds United remains unchanged. We look forward to competing in the Premier League next season.”

More Scottish clubs are in financial distress and fan spending is declining according to insolvency experts Begbies Traynor:  https://www.scottishfinancialnews.com/articles/begbies-traynor-scottish-football-clubs-face-mounting-financial-pressure-amid-reduced-fan-spending

Hearts are in negotiations with Brighton and Hove Albion chairman Tony Bloom about an investment deal potentially worth £10million to transform their player recruitment. Bloom wants Hearts to use his Starlizard sports analysis company to sign and sell on players using the same recruitment data model as Brighton have done to spectacular effect. Hearts officials and Bloom have held extensive discussions over a collaboration. If Starlizard was used, successfully, Bloom may also take a minority stake in the Tynecastle club. That would need to be approved by Foundation of Hearts members but a deal to use the Starlizard technology itself could be approved by the club’s board of directors. London-based Starlizard’s team conducted a review of Hearts’ recruitment operation and found aspects which could be improved. The prospective agreement would not involve any tie-up between Hearts and Brighton in terms of player deals, with no suggestion of Hearts becoming any form of “feeder club”...

I get a bit irritated by clubs being described as 'big' or even 'massive' because there are no agreed criteria to measure club size.  Most fans tend to think that their clubs are bigger than they actually are, so 'big' clubs seem to be in profusion in League One or at least are classified as 'sleeping giants'. Credit to BBC Sport, they have asked 250 of their staff to look at a range of criteria:  https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/c337xrmr5keo No prizes for guessing which club come ou top.

Hibernian's owner Ian Gordon has said that he will write off the club's £7.2m loss and convert debt into equity:  https://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/hibs/latest-hibs-news/donation-ian-gordon-confirms-he-will-write-off-hibs-ps7m-loss-as-he-addresses-finances-and-ben-kensell-exit Gordon hinted that he was less than satisfied with the club's departing chief executive.

An American consortium that includes the San Francisco 49ers is believed to be moving closer to agreeing a substantial investment into Rangers.  The deal is being led by Paraag Marathe, an executive who leads the venture capital arm of the 49ers NFL team, but also includes members who have not yet been named. 49ers Enterprises already has a controlling stake in Leeds United after taking control at Elland Road in 2023 in a £170 million deal. Marathe is chairman at the Yorkshire club. Talks are at a relatively advanced stage and may pave the way for an agreement to be announced in the coming months. There is potential for the consortium to attempt to buy out other Rangers investors and build up its stake in the Ibrox club over time.. Rangers already has a US presence in its boardroom and on its shareholder register.   John Halsted, a Wyoming-based private equity investor, has been a non-executive director since August 2023. He originally bought sha...