The Political Economy of Football V2

On paper, today’s game between Club Brugge and Manchester City at the Etihad is a mismatch, as the English champions are much stronger financially, but, as someone once said, “it’s a funny old game”.  As an example, City’s squad cost is more than ten times as much as Club Brugge, while the wage bill is £340m higher. Of course, they are very much the underdogs in this evening’s game against Manchester City, but even if they don’t manage to qualify, the income they receive from this season’s competition will still make a substantial difference to their bottom line. One of the most successful clubs in Belgium Club Brugge are one of the most successful clubs in Belgium, having won no fewer than 19 league titles, including six in the last nine years. Much of this has been built on money earned from regularly competing in Europe, which has given them a financial advantage over the rest of the Belgian Pro League. A recent highlight came two years ago when they reached the Champion...

The economic challenges faced by Belgian professional football over the past few years have been significant. In the 2021-2022 season alone, the sport suffered a loss of €213 million, with the 2022-2023 balance sheet showing little improvement. These financial difficulties have been ongoing since the 2016-2017 season when the last positive records were reported. Nils Van Brantegem, the auditor general of the Licensing Commission, revealed in a recent Le Soir article that the losses amounted to €213 million for 2021-2022 and were already negative at €74 million as of 31 December 2022, for the following season. The situation has been particularly worrisome as only Club Brugge and Charleroi managed to maintain positive financial results consistently over the past three years. Anderlecht and Genk were the only clubs to successfully reduce their debts over five years. Although some clubs have been kept afloat by shareholder injections of funds, the overall revenue generation has been in...

A cross-border league between Belgium and the Netherlands has moved closer after Belgian Pro League clubs voted unanimously in favour:  https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/bene-league-belgium-dutch-football-clubs-b924537.html Some fans are concerned that it would only favour big clubs. There are a few leagues that have teams from other countries in them such as the MSL (Canadian teams), Vaduz playing in the Swiss League, Wellington Phoenix in the A-league and, at one time, Berwick Rangers in the Scottish leagues.   However, this would be the first full-scale cross-border merger.

Smaller European countries have fallen behind in continental competitions. Dutch clubs were once leading contenders in European competitions, but are no longer, unable to compete with the likes of Bayern Munich or Real Madrid. An active discussion has now started about a 'super league' for Belgium and the Netherlands: Cross border proposal It wouldn't strictly be a 'Benelux' league as Luxembourg which has semi-professional or amateur teams would not be involved. As such, it might not be super enough, but there is the intriguing possibility of other smaller European countries becoming involved, not least Scotland. The idea of such a league was first discussed in the 1990s. The cited report notes, 'In recent years the Irn-Bru Cup, the Scottish cup competition for teams below the Scottish Premier League, has been revamped to include teams from Wales, Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and England. So far, the development is regarded as being a success...

The supporters trusts at Blackburn Rovers and Charlton Athletic have issued a joint statement ahead of the meeting of the two clubs at Ewood Park tomorrow on 'the importance of ownership'. They argue that their clubs have suffered from incompetence, arrogance, instability and absence, adversely affecting supporter morale: Ownership Charlton's ownership is Belgian and the Trust has produced an interesting analysis of the differences between British and Belgian culture, suggesting that they are more different than is assumed. I am not sure that I agree with the argument that there is a relative absence of hierarchy in Britain and we tend to see everyone a equal, but it is an interesting piece: Culture clash