The Political Economy of Football V2

A high-profile U.S. sports executive pardoned by Donald Trump in December, following an indictment for allegedly rigging a bidding process, has bought a minority stake in Championship club Bolton Wanderers, subject to regulatory approval. Tim Leiweke was accused by the Department of Justice last summer of orchestrating a conspiracy to put off a rival bid for the construction of a sports arena at the University of Texas so that his own company, Oak View Group (OVG), could win the $375million contract. In May, the 69-year-old invested €100 million ($114m; £85m) in newly-promoted Serie A side Venezia, with his daughter Francesca Bodie becoming the club’s president. Last month, he was blocked from buying a 16 per cent stake Benfica, as the Portuguese club’s board raised concerns about being part of a multi-club group. And now Leiweke, his daughter and former OVG executive Keegan McDonald have formed a new entity called Entrepreneur Equity Partners to buy a stake in Bolton, ...

Lower league clubs will be hit hard by the decision not to allow fans into matches, as they are particularly dependent on matchday revenue:  https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/54246745 Kieran Maguire of the PriceofFootball comments: 'National League c lubs will be especially hit by the decision to not allow matches to take place before fans. Only 3 clubs out of 24 made a profit in 2018/19, and total losses were £318,000 a week across the division.' Wrexham made the biggest profit (£755k) and Dover Athletic the biggest loss (£494k). Streaming games is one (relatively small) source of income for clubs, but how it works does not constitute a level playing field.  Here is the chairman of Colchester United on the issue: 'The way it works currently is that the home team keep all of the revenue for the tickets they sell through their own website and they also get the revenue for the first 500 that buy via the away team. For example: for Saturday’s game against Bolton, we sold 452 iFollow...

Laurence Bassini has told Sky Sports News that he has pulled out of a £1.2m deal to buy Charlton from Tahnoon Nimer:  https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11684/11995567/laurence-bassini-pulls-out-of-charlton-athletic-takeover He said that one consideration was the presence of Roland Duchatelet who owns the stadium and training ground.   Bassini would just have bought 'the club', i.e., the golden share in the EFL. Bassini is maintaining his interest in Bolton Wanderers. Charlton fans are now placing their hopes in former Dinas Abertawe chairman Huw Jenkins, although the CAS Trust is exploring the unlikely possibility of a fan buyout.

There are three leading experts on football finance. Dan Jones is the head of the Sports Business Group at Deloitte. He and his colleagues provide authoritative analyses of football finances, including an annual report on trends and the Deloitte Money League that ranks clubs by financial success with Real Madrid often coming out on top. The expertise and analytical ability of Jones and his colleagues is beyond doubt but, given their client base, they are necessarily looking at football from a corporate finance perspective. That said, someone needs to defend the Premier League. Many think that the highest standards in impartial analysis of football finance are set by the Swiss Rambler who tweets as @SwissRamble from Zurich. Kieron O’Connor has spent a lifetime in finance and is also multilingual. Hence, he is able to produce in depth analyses of football clubs from across Europe. I find the amount of detail he provides and the perceptiveness of his comments just stunning. Last...

Former Bolton Wanderers owner Ken Anderson walked away with £240,000 from the sale of the club to Football Ventures despite being criticised for his conduct by the administrators. The Eddie Davies Trust forgave £7.5m of debt to facilitate the sale: Takeover

Bolton Wanderers face liquidation after the takeover deal for the club collapsed. The administrators say that it cannot go on trading: Bolton crisis worsens It would seem that the rogue owner's terms proved too onerous for the buyers. Everyone signed up on Saturday except his solicitor. In a statement the administrator said, 'On Sunday evening, there was some tentative dialogue but we are still some way from reaching a solution. Therefore, I am appealing to those parties whose position seems intractable to do everything to reach a compromise.' Kieran Maguire of the PriceofFootball has commented, 'Why did the EFL allow a man previously banned from being a company director acquire the club, then pay himself £525k and £125k to his son for ‘consultancy’ as well as borrow money at 24% a year?'

With Bury hopeful of a takeover deal by the new deadline on Tuesday evening that will save them from extinction, the focus now turns back to Bolton Wanderers. Unless they can sort out their takeover deal by Tuesday evening or show a credible plan for surviving the season in administration, this historic club also faces being thrown out of the Football League: Bolton under threat The attendance at their home game against Ipswich which they lost 0-5 was the lowest ever since they left Burnden Park. In the wake of events at Bury the Football Supporters' Association have renewed their call for more effective regulation of the game: Need for action

The English Football League has issued a portmanteau statement om Bolton Wanderers and Bury. If they do not supply certain evidence by 5 pm today, their opening fixtures may be suspended: EFL statement Wycombe Wanderers have suspended ticket sales for their home fixture against Bolton on Saturday. Bolton's match is now going ahead, but Bury's will not take place, a bleak prospect for the club.

The administrators' report for Bolton Wanderers has now been published online and can be accessed here: Companies House Turnover fell from £24.3m in the year ended June 2016 to £8.2m in the year ended June 2017. A loss of £10.1m was made in the year ended June 2015. There was a profit in 2016 due to one off events totalling £200m including the writing off of a debt owed to Burnden Leisure Limited. The loss in the year ended June 2017 was £8.3m. The report notes, 'In its history, the Club has featured in the highest divisions of English football for a total of 73 seasons.' The list of 294 creditors in Appendix 5 makes sobering reading in terms of how many small businesses are adversely affected by the collapse of a football club.

The three years that Ken Anderson was in charge at Bolton Wanderers have left a trail of debt all round the area according to a report from the administrators: Complex finances Nearly £25million is owed to businesses large and small, including a whopping £1,748,724 to Bolton Council for rates and other services. If the 35p dividend forecast by the administrators is correct, they would stand to lose out on just over £1.1m of the money outstanding. HMRC will also be hit significantly. They are owed £2,470,461 but stand to recoup £864,661.

The sale of Bolton Wanderers to a preferred bidder is nearing completion. The preferred bidder cannot be named until today for legal reasons: Statement by the administrators I hope that this is the beginning of a new era for the staff and fans of this historic club when they can focus on the football instead of having to set up food banks or players having to pay the travel costs of Academy players out of their own pocket. What has happened does not reflect well on the governance of football.

Bolton Wanderers have been through a very difficult period, but hopefully things are now looking up with agreement for the Football Ventures consortium to take over the club. They were one of five bids received: New owners Football Ventures is a company registered in January with the sole purpose of buying Bolton. It has satisfied the administrators that it has funding for at least two years. The four strong consortium is led by Sharon Brittan. According to Bloomberg, 'Sharon Brittan serves as Non-Executive Director at UKCloud Limited. During a career spanning more than 25 years Sharon has completed multiple real estate development projects and now advises on investment and asset management. Her achievements included co-founder and CEO of Britannia Row Business Centre, an award-winning property offering flexible workspace solutions; CEO of One Alfred Place, a private members business club in the West End of London.' The club went into administration at the end of last se...

The seventh annual Football Distress Report by insolvency specialist Begbies Traynor reveals that financial distress in football clubs has seen a six‐fold increase from just one to six clubs (8% of total clubs) across the Championship and two Football League divisions now showing signs of serious financial trouble. With the season’s high stakes play‐off games just completed, the six clubs across the three divisions are already showing signs of financial hardship, which could be exacerbated depending on their relative fortunes on the pitch. The increase to just over 8% of clubs in financial distress follows a period of improvement for the past five consecutive years, during which time the drop in distress fell from its peak of 11% to a record low of 1% of all league clubs in 2018. “A sharp rise in the number of struggling clubs is a great concern for the sport in England, and counters the opposite trend in Scotland where prudent management has seen the distress levels fall to nil thi...

This is a sad and shocking story. Bolton Wanderers have had to set up an emergency food bank for unpaid staff. It should be remembered that many of the staff on the non-football side of are often on very 'ordinary' wages: Food bank for staff Kieran Maguire of the PriceofFootball has commented: 'A tragedy and further indictment of owner Ken Anderson’s reign of greed and neglect.'

Bolton Wanderers have gone into administration over an unpaid tax bill, the first league club to do so for six years: Adminsiration This will mean a 12 point deduction for the club. There are no purchasers in sight at the moment, but this may change if the assets are available at a reduced price.

The fixture between Bolton Wanderers and Brentford today has had to be called off after Bolton players, who have not been paid their wages for March, refused to play: Postponed The club will now face disciplinary action. The EFL have issued a statement saying that the club must complete their two remaining matches in the Championship. The EFL will do what it can to bring the ownership issue to a speedy conclusion: EFL statement The EFL has been widely criticised and needs to get a grip on the problem of rogue owners. However, often they are faced with a sole bidder for a club in financial trouble and turning that person down might see the club collapse.

A deal has been agreed for the sale of Bolton Wanderers to Laurence Bassini, the former Watford owner. Bassini has to pass the EFL owners' test and provide proof of funding. His three year ban from football for three years from 2013 for breaking transfer rules will not affect the test's outcome. The club said that 'significant funds' would be made available to pay staff and player wages before the deal was ratified with all debts to HMRC to be settled once it was completed. One fan commented on Twitter, 'How can a bloke (former bankrupt) who still owes over £1 million to another football club pass the fit and proper person test?' Another commented, 'I find it somewhat amusing that, as a Chartered Accountant, I’m held to a higher standard to be a member of Pompey’s Heritage and Advisory Board than Bassini is to be an owner.' The principal mechanism to check on the suitability of a prospective owner is the owners’ and directors’ test, formerly known...

Top football finance expert Kieran Maguire reviews how Birmingham City, Blackburn Rovers and Bolton Wanderers arrived at their present plight: The three B's As Maguire notes in relation to Birmingham City, 'Whoever chooses to take on the responsibility of running a Championship football club will realistically have to be prepared to pay out huge sums every month to keep the club afloat, in either an attempt to keep the club from League One, where clubs earn broadcast income of about £1m or achieve promotion to the Premier League where they can earn a minimum of £100m. But as we have seen with Birmingham, pushing the boat out too far can have consequences.

Takeover talks for Bolton Wanderers have come to an end. The club now has to deal with a winding up hearing in court following an application by HMRC: Takeover breakdown

This post was originally written for Charlton fanzine Voice of the Valley. Who can keep rogue owners of football clubs in check or at least prevent their worst abuses? There is no easy answer to this question. One reason is that when a club is in difficulty, possibly facing administration, anyone who seems to have sufficient funds is going to look like a saviour. A bad owner is arguably better than a club going out of business altogether as ultimately he can be replaced, although in the meantime he may take the club to the brink and inflict long-term damage. Fans may leave and find other things to do on match days. The first body is to consider is the English Football League (EFL). Its primary to task is to run a series of football competitions. It is not set up to be a fans’ representative body, nor is it well suited to be a regulator. However, it is has been obliged to undertake some regulatory functions, often after external pressure, because of the reputational damage th...