The Political Economy of Football V2

Football finance guru Kieran Maguire has warned Aston Villa that they cannot afford to slip into Euripe's third tier given that they have long been struggling to comply with Premier League financial fair play rules.   If you qualify for Europe you can only spend 70 per cent of your revenue on player costs comapred with 85 per cent in the Premier League. Maguire pointed out that for every £1 you earn in the Champions League you get 22p in the Europa League and 11p in the Conference League.    Moreover, every place in the Premier League is worth £2.5m. There are plans to expand the capacity of Villa Park to more than 50,000, but even if Villa double their match day revenue it will be over £100m behind that of United - they also attract more tourists who sp\end more on merch (yield at United is £80 per fan and at Villa £24). Maguire reckons that Villa need to be in the Champions League two years out of three if they are going to join the big six.

Football is now as much a financial and legal contest as a sporting one and who better to review the past year and possible future developments than football finance guru Kieran Maguire:  https://insidersport-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/insidersport.com/2025/12/29/kieran-maguire-football-man-city-court/?amp=&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

Manchester United are planning to go on a post-season trip to Malaysia at the end of the current season for a money-spinning tour that may earn the club $10million (£7.96m, €9.6m) in revenue. Premier League teams usually travel overseas for pre-season tours, with United likely to return to the United States once again later next summer, but post-season tours are also becoming a trend as clubs seek to maximise revenue streams and comply with the Premier League’s profit and sustainability regulations, as well as UEFA’s Financial Fair Play regulations. This is a particular challenge for United, who have also been pursuing an aggressive strategy of cost-cutting under the minority ownership of Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who has cut 250 jobs from the club, as well as raising ticket prices at Old Trafford, clamping down on staff expenses and cancelling the annual staff Christmas party. Football finance guru Kieran Maguire comments acidly: ‘I'm sure the players will be delighted, e...

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has confirmed that the UK government plans to introduce an independent regulator to the country’s most popular sport.   However, the legislation will not be in this year’s Queens Speech, but will be completed in time for the next general election. The  Football Association would prefer that regulator to sit within its walls, an idea that has gained support at the  Premier League.   Both the FA and the Premier League risk losing control of a sport that is largely self-governing.    That self-government has been seen to fail. Advocates of the independent regulator say that football needs a reset following a series of controversies that exposed clubs to shocks, including sanctioned billionaire  Roman Abramovich ’s forced sale of  Chelse a  because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Then there’s the pandemic, which underlined the financial precarity of clubs, a result of overspending on buying players and fu...

The excellent article by football finance guru Kieran Maguire on Covid-19 and football is currently free to read online:  https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1467-923X.12961

The effects of the Covid-19 pandemic have been felt in this year’s transfer window, although Brexit has also had an effect. Clubs in Europe's nine biggest leagues plus the Chinese Super League have this season spent almost €3.5 billion less on players than in 2019/20.   Premier League clubs spent just €300 million less meaning the league's transfer balance deteriorated while others such as LaLiga improved, report offthepitch.com Europe's nine biggest leagues plus the Chinese Super League this season spent just €4.1 billion on players compared to a figure of €7.6 billion in 2019/20. That is a 46 per cent decrease - in actual numbers €3.5 billion less – a big difference seen in relation to the way spending has continued to rise for many years. "It's pretty much due to the financial implications of Covid-19 and the considerable amount of time with little to no fans coming through the door," says Chris Winn, MSc Football Business programme leader at UCFB...

Football finance guu Kieran Maguire says Leeds United would benefit from a cup run or qualification for Europe:  https://www.leeds-live.co.uk/sport/leeds-united/leeds-united-finances-kieran-maguire-19652777 Kieran talks about how Covid-19 has highlighted existing financial weaknesses in English football here:  https://politicalquarterly.blog/2021/01/14/how-covid-19-highlights-existing-weaknesses-in-english-football/

Kieran Maguire's The Price of Football is one of the most significant books on football finance to come out in 2020.  It is now out of print with Agenda, although copies are still available on Amazon. Kieran is much in demand as a media commentator and also has his own podcast. It was therefore with some uncertainty that I approached Kieran to write something on Covid-19 and football for Political Quarterly of which I am reports and surveys editor. The full article will be available free online for a while in due course.   In the meantime, Kieran has produced a 'digested read' of his key points:  https://politicalquarterly.blog/2021/01/14/how-covid-19-highlights-existing-weaknesses-in-english-football/

Football finance guru Kieran Maguire has produced some interesting figures on the median income levels for clubs in English football.    The Big Six have 3.3 times the income of the other 14 Premier League clubs.   Big Six wages are three times those of the other 14.  The other 14 have 2.6 times the income of parachute payment clubs.    In turn the parachute clubs have three times the income of other Championship clubs, bringing home the distorting effect of parachute payments. The Championship has 2.9 times the income of League One and League One has 1.6 times the income of League Two.

It is increasingly looking likely that women's football could take a big hit from Covid-19.  Football finance guru Kieran Maguire reckons that a number of clubs could go out of business, including relegated Liverpool:  https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/genuine-concern-liverpool-women-new-18304811 The tireless Maguire has collected accounts of all the clubs and reckons they are losing £1m to £1.5m a year.  This may be more than cash strapped clubs are willing to pay.

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...

Nottingham Forest lost £36 million from day to day operations in 2018/19, reports Kieran Maguire of the PriceofFootball. The Liverpool-based football finance guru comments, 'Forest's operating losses also mid table in terms of the car crash that is the Championship. It's noticeable that club with the biggest losses {Aston Villa) was promoted & the only one to make a profit (Rotherham United) was relegated.' Forest income puts them mid table in Championship due to lack of parachute payments and not being Leeds. Forest’s income up slightly, mainly due to higher sponsorship and loan fee income. The Forest wage bill was not excessive by Championship standards. Average weekly wage was just short of £17k a week. Wages were up by 26 per cent. They paid £143 in wages for every £100 of income, a worrying ratio, but far from unusual in the Championship as teams aim for promotion. Forest bought players for £22.7 million in 2018/19 and had sales of £11 million. Forest we...

Football finance guru Kieran Maguire talks about how he became involved in the study of football finance, his podcast and ideas for the future of the game: The columbo of football finance He would like to see the following changes: 'I would make football stadia protected community assets to stop them being bought and sold for commercial purposes. I would ensure that anyone who came into the game as an owner would have to effectively put money into an escrow account so that if they left there was sufficient money to pay the bills for a period of, say, two years. And finally, I’d say that all clubs have to publish full, agreed information to a de minimis standard in the football industry for public consumption.' His book The Price of £ootball is published by Agenda.

Once again I am taking advantage of work by Kieran Maguire to summarise the financial results of a club for 2018/19, this time St. Mirren. I am swamped with work at the moment and one thing that keeps getting put to one side is writing a review of Kieran's new book on The Price of £ootball. I can recommend it on the basis of what I have read so far. St Mirren published operating losses of just over £900k for 18/19 'but their business model of developing players and selling them for a profit worked again and a £1m profit was made. St Mirren sold players for £330k in the summer 2019 window. St Mirren have plenty of cash in bank and have made over £8m profits over the years.' Promotion to Scottish Premiership boosted St Mirren income by 46% with matchday and broadcast income seeing the biggest increases. 'St Mirren wrote off £29,000 on a player impairment in 2018/19. That’s accounting speak for saying they signed someone who turned out to be shite. St Mirren spent ...

In his new book on The Price of £ootball, Kieran Maguire says of the Zurich blogger Swiss Ramble 'Sets the standards that others can only dream to achieve.' He has spent a lifetime working in finance and is multilingual. In his latest series of posts he looks at the revenue English clubs derive from European competitions. UEFA TV money earned by English clubs increased by a third (£105m) in 2018/19 from £322m to £427m, split between £352m from the Champions League and £75m from the Europa League. In fact, their European revenue has more than tripled in just four years – from only £129m in 2015. Only considering revenue earned by the English clubs that qualified for Europe in this period, the share of total revenue contributed by European TV money has increased from 8% in 2015 to 14% in 2019. Note: this excludes income from gate receipts and sponsorship success clause. However, there is a clear difference between earnings in the Champions League and the Europa League. In 20...

An old Private Eye cartoon but still relevant Leading football finance analyst Kieran Maguire of Liverpool University, and author of a new book on the Price of £ootball has been making a fascinating series of comparisons between the finances of Tranmere Rovers and Manchester United who meet in the FA Cup today. In terms of revenue, for every £1 generated by the Wirral club, Manchester United make £136. For every £1 in wages paid by Tranmere, Manchester United pay £83.40. For every pound in transfers paid by Tranmere, Manchester United paid £18,219.10. Tranmere pay their board of directors nothing , Manchester United pay theirs £10.6m. Tranmere pay their shareholders nothing, Manchester United pay theirs £22 million a year. Tranmere Rovers have paid their bankers £1.2 million in interest since 2006, Manchester United have paid theirs £816 million. In his book, published by Agenda, Maguire states: 'There are many examples of fine owners in all divisions ... such as Nicola [...

According to a study performed by DataPOWA, an AI-driven digital marketing agency specialising in sports and entertainment, Barcelona and Real Madrid are the clubs most valuable to brands in world football. The study - entitled the "POWA Index" - compares the sponsorship power of football clubs to their ranking on the Deloitte Football Money League - and the three highest-ranking clubs in terms of revenue, Barcelona, Real Madrid and Manchester United, also rank highest in terms of sponsorship impact. However, that's where the similarities between the two rankings end. While clubs like Bayern Munich, Manchester City and Tottenham all rank in the top eight on the Deloitte Football Money League, none of them feature higher than tenth on the POWA Index. Behind Barcelona and Real Madrid in first and second, respectively, are Manchester United in third, Arsenal in fourth, and Liverpool in fifth. Chelsea lie sixth, while Manchester City find themselves at tenth, despite havin...

The Liverpool Echo looks forward to Liverpool's next set of financial accounts, suggesting that the increased cost base may lead to a reduction in profits despite a projected £80m increase in revenues as the club's revival continues under FSG: Success on and off the pitch. Kieran Maguire teaches the Football Industries MBA at the University of Liverpool's Management School and his new book with Agenda on the Price of £ootball contains a great deal of fascinating information about Liverpool FC. Maguire is actually a Brighton supporter, but also has a soft spot for Tranmere Rovers.

That was the cry that rang round Old Trafford last night after Manchester United was defeated at home by Burnley for the first time since the 1960s. Protests were also directed at Ed Woodward, whose title of executive vice-chairman underplays his importance at the club. It might be noted that it's when things go wrong on the pitch (relatively speaking, United are still 5th) that fans are most vociferous about the Glazers and their treatment of the club as an American style sports franchise. Unsurprisingly, Kieran Maguire presents an in depth case study of Manchester United in his new book on 'The Price of £ootball' published by Agenda. His main conclusions are: The Glazer takeover was a big financial risk, but has paid off them [one might add, both in terms of capital appreciation and income]. Their commercial department is in a league of its own when it comes to striking deals. Sir Alex Ferguson worked wonders on a restricted budget in the early years of the takeover....

The tireless Kieran Maguire has been up early looking at the latest filings at Companies House. Blackburn Rovers parent company Venky’s London publish results for year to 31 March 2019. The whole of the turnover is attributable to Blackburn Rovers. The club lost £20.3 million in year despite promotion to the Championship, which works out as £391k a week. Average income in the Championship is £31.4m, so Rovers are on less than half that, partly due to impact of parachute payments [which have such a distorting effect in the Championship]. The Blackburn wage bill in 2018/19 was the third lowest of the decade, average weekly wage £11,000 a week last season compared to division average of £16,000 a week. At £6.1m media (up from £2.9m in League One) accounted for 41 per cent of income; commercial at £5.2m accounted for 35 per cent; matchday at £3.6m accounted for 24 per cent. Lancs Live comments on the results here: Blackburn Rovers You can read the accounts online at: Venky's Lon...