The Political Economy of Football V2

Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur, together with the Football Association showed the way.  Now the EFL is hoping to secure a low interest loan from the Bank of England under its Covid Corporate Financing Facility (CCFF). The scheme, which was Treasury backing, is intended to help 'larger' companies with cash flow problems arising from the pandemic.   The central bank buys commercial paper issued by businesses. The EFL would like to borrow as much as £225m, but £150m is a more likely figure.   However, private lenders are also interested in lending money to the EFL, including US insurer MetLife.   Perhaps they would like a deal similar to that negotiated by Serie A where private investors in effect acquire a stake in the league. It should be noted that the Premier League has pledged to cover £15m of interest payments and loan costs for Championship clubs.

Assessing the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic for football finances is far from easy.   Apart from anything else, we don't know what the future course of the pandemic will be, e.g., whether mutations will significantly reduce the efficacy of the available vaccines. In any case there has already been pressure on broadcasting contracts which have been coming in around 10 per cent below previous values which would mean a £450m fall in revenues for the Premier League.  In the UK, Sky has new leadership, BT has decided that its optimal strategy is to settle for second place and Amazon is an opportunistic purchaser:  https://www.theguardian.com/media/2021/jan/11/tension-everywhere-premier-league-back-foot-uk-tv-rights-auction-nears There is a temptation in this situation which some analysts have fallen to resort to hyperbole and overly pessimistic accounts of the end of football finance as we know it (this does not apply to the cited article which is a very balanced ...