The Political Economy of Football V2

The bar of the Tooting & Mitcham United football club looks like a relic from the 1930s. Black-and-white photographs of past players line the walls as fans queue to buy £5 ($6.80) pre-match pints—a bargain by south London’s standards. But instead of accompanying their beers with pies like fans of yore, today’s supporters are tucking into perfectly seasoned jerk chicken and plantains served on rice. “The food is what gets me here,” says Terry, a Chelsea supporter turned season-ticket holder at semi-professional Tooting. Lower-tier football clubs are having a culinary moment. Footy Scran, an Instagram account documenting football-stadium food around the world, has singled out several clubs outside the Premier League for praise. Supporters of Whitehawk, a non-league club in Brighton, can tackle a gravity-defying burger combining chicken, beef and hash browns, topped with onion fries. Forest Green Rovers, in the Cotswolds [Forest of Dean?], another non-league club, has decid...

Doncaster Rovers made a loss of £1.85 million in 2018/19 and total losses over the years are over £33 million reports Kieran Maguire of the PriceofFootball. The losses in the previous year were £2.79m. The club owed the owners over £6m in interest free loans at 30 June 2019. Player sales brought in over £1m in 2019/20. Doncaster Rovers did not sign any players for fees in 2018/19. As a smaller company the club chose to file abridged accounts which are limited in the detail they provide: Club accounts