The Political Economy of Football V2

The Swiss Ramble uses his unrivalled data bank and forensic skills to analyse the financial performances of the top 15 clubs in Europe.  Much more in depth analysis can be found on his Substack page. England still dominate the top 15 with the usual Big Six (Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur), while the next highest contributors with three apiece are Spain (Atletico Madrid, Barcelona and Real Madrid) and Italy (Inter, Juventus and Milan). Germany provide two clubs (Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund), while Paris Saint-Germain are the sole French representative. Looking at the combined results for the top 15 clubs, they still lose money, but there has been a significant reduction in losses (excluding exceptional items) from £1.4 bln in 2021/22 to £257m in 2024/25.     The Premier League’s average loss widened from £55m to £70m.   Three of the other leagues swung from a loss in 2021/22 to a profit in 2024/25, ...

On the basis of this summer, it is the belief that by signing players from the Premier League, a club is operating with the least jeopardy and is most likely to produce immediate and substantial results.  The evidence is overwhelming in the summer spend by the 20 current Premier League teams on players registered last season to Premier League clubs, therefore including purchases from relegated West Ham, Wolves and Burnley. By the time the window closed at 11pm local time last night, Premier League clubs had spent £3.6billion ($4.9bn), according to an analysis by  The Athletic , and £1.7bn ($2.3bn) of this was spent on those in last season’s Premier League,   in a spend that shatters all previous windows for spending within the division.  In the six summer windows between 2017 and the 2022 seasons, the average Premier League spend on players registered to Premier League clubs in the previous season was £418.2m, which means we have seen a comparative fourfold incre...

The value of English football’s biggest clubs is spiralling.  The new investment attaches a valuation of around £5.5bn to Liverpool, eclipsing the 2024 arrival of Sir Jim Ratcliffe into Manchester United, where a 25 per cent stake had valued the club at £4.3bn. The figures are stretching beyond what most industry experts — such as Forbes and Sportico — consider to be the value of these clubs. International advisory firm Football Benchmark, another to compile annual assessments of Europe’s biggest clubs, valued Liverpool at between £3.9bn and £4.2bn in its 2026 rankings, with Chelsea listed at between £2.5bn and £2.7bn. More than £3.1bn was distributed centrally among the Premier League’s 20 clubs last season, almost double the £1.63bn handed out in the 2015-16 campaign. It means the biggest clubs, including Liverpool, can now expect to generate annual revenues north of £700m, with aspirations to eventually follow Real Madrid beyond the £1bn mark in the years to come. Matchday r...

On Thursday morning, Manchester United unveiled the proposed location of their new, 100,000-capacity stadium.  Unsurprisingly, minority owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s prize project will be based on land the club acquired last month to the north-west of the existing Old Trafford stadium, around 350 metres away from what has been their home since 1910. Collette Roche, United’s chief executive of new stadium development, spoke to journalists following the event at Old Trafford to give an update on where the plans stand, and how they have changed since United first announced their ambitions for a new home in March last year.  Back in March 2025, Ratcliffe expressed confidence that the project could be completed in as little as five years, provided it gained the support of local and national government. Omar Berrada, United’s chief executive, was unequivocal on timescales at that stage. When asked if the 2030-31 season was the target for the grand opening, he simply said: “Yes.”Yet ...

Manchester United have secured the majority of the land required to build a new 100,000-seater stadium to replace Old Trafford.   The club announced on Monday it has acquired a 25-acre site north west of the current stadium from Indurent, an industrial warehousing company. The land is located around 350 metres away from Old Trafford’s existing site — between Wharfside Way, Europa Way and John Gilbert Way.    The acquisition means that United no longer require land owned by Freightliner, a rail logistics company, located directly to the west of Old Trafford.Freightliner were demanding around $400million (£301.8m) for the land, substantially higher than United’s projected price of around £50m. The acquisition marks a change from initial designs unveiled by United and architects Foster + Partners last year, which located the new stadium adjacent to the existing site. United said they do not anticipate issues acquiring the remainder of the land required by the new st...

Manchester United have taken out a further $125million in long-term debt following a refinancing of borrowings related to the Glazer family’s 2005 takeover. A filing to the U.S Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) confirmed on Friday that United have restructured their $425m senior secured notes, which were due for repayment next year. The refinanced debt now amounts to $550m, at a higher interest rate of 5.36 per cent. The previous rate, secured in 2015, was 3.79 per cent. At that higher rate, United’s annual interest payments will rise by approximately £10m at the current exchange rate. During the 2024-25 season, United paid out £37m in interest costs. Having previously been due for repayment in June 2027, United’s terms have now been extended until 2031. United’s senior secured notes are one of the club’s two tranches of long-term debt, alongside a secured term loan facility worth $225m. Both are a legacy of American businessman Malcolm Glazer’s controversial leveraged...

The multi-billion-pound regeneration project that includes a new stadium for Manchester United could be plunged into a “period of uncertainty” if Andy Burnham wins the Makerfield by-election and vacates his present role, The Times can reveal. While the Old Trafford Regeneration Mayoral Development Corporation received UK government approval in January, success for the ‘King of the North’ on June 18 means he would vacate the office of mayor immediately. A by-election would then need to take place by August 6.  But there is concern among senior figures linked to the project that such a change could hinder progress on the building of 15,000 homes as well as a state-of-the-art 100,000-seat stadium on the 370-acre site, with a new mayor potentially able to withhold approval for some funding arrangements, direct the board to shift its focus to the residential development or deny the compulsory purchase of land should it be required.  A spokesman for Reform UK said they would c...

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.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer presented his  Chinese counterpart President Xi Jinping with a Premier League match ball flown 5,000 miles from London. Tthe UK Prime Minister arrived in Beijing armed with one of the yellow Puma match balls used in Sunday’s Premier League fixture between Arsenal and Manchester United, a game he had attended at the Emirates Stadium.    It wassigned by a number of United pl;ayers. It was reportedly presented to Xi ahead of a formal summit and lunch in the Great Hall of the People, with China’s president widely known to be a Manchester United supporter.  Xi’s affection for Manchester United may have been reasonably well known, but more surprising was the revelation   that he told Starmer he also has a fondness for Arsenal, Manchester City and Crystal Palace. Xi’s last trip to Manchester saw him given a tour of the Etihad Campus by City’s chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak, who has subsequently become a special envoy to China on...

Manchester United's defeat of Arsenal at the Emirates yesterday was something of a surprise (and a great game of football for the neutral).  However, it should not be assumed that United's problems are over after two wins or that Arsenal have now lost the title as some of their nervous fans fear.  {Dido is an Arsenal fan). Arsenal went into the game sitting at the top of both the Premier League and the Uefa Champions League tables, a rise underpinned by significant spending on players and years of settled ownership under US billionaire Stan Kroenke.  Manchester United have outspent Arsenal over the past five years, yet stability has eluded them: less than two years after taking control of club operations Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s Ineos has already sacked two managers. Both clubs have had to handle a bumpy period of transition following the departures of long-serving managers — Arsène Wenger at Arsenal and Manchester United’s Sir Alex Ferguson. But while United’s owners have la...

 In 2024/25, Real Madrid remained the only football club to generate over €1 billion in revenue, doing so for the second consecutive year. While the club reported a 6% decrease in matchday revenue, primarily driven by a reduction in revenue from the sale of Personal Seat Licenses, its €233m matchday revenue would still rank as the second highest ever generated by a Money League club. Additionally, the club reported a 23% increase in commercial revenue, driven by improved merchandise performance and new commercial partners. For the first time since 2019/20, FC Barcelona returned to the Deloitte Money League podium (2 nd ), generating €975m. Despite continuing to play matches away from the Spotify Camp Nou, which is due for completion during the 2025/26 season, the club reported a 27% growth in revenue compared to 2023/24. A key driver for this growth was the introduction of Personal Seat Licence arrangements, generating one-off c.€70m. Much like Real Madrid during the 2023/24 se...

It's not often that the editorial in the Financial Times is about football, but their editorial today is well worth reproducing. For all that they say, for fans the manager remains of central and possibly exaggerated importance,   Look at the jeopardy facing Thomas Frank after today's home defeat to West Ham and the boos of fans.  Or consider the article in today's Times in which a Crystal Palace fan effectively blames the board for losing their 'best ever' manager. The Pink 'Un states: 'Since New Year, three of the world’s most famous football clubs — Chelsea, Manchester United and Real Madrid — have sacked their head coach. This is normal for the industry: the average tenure of head coaches across Europe is now about 1.2 years, with most serving less than a season. The sackings illustrate football’s dysfunctionality. They also highlight the passing of football’s “big man” era. If clubs, fans and coaches themselves can adjust to this shift, that may be no b...

 The New Year may typically be the season of goodwill, but two of football’s biggest clubs chose to swing the axe. Private equity-owned Chelsea sacked head coach Enzo Maresca, while Manchester United ditched Ruben Amorim. The two teams have since slipped from fifth and sixth in the league respectively to seventh and eighth. In the hotly contested race to reach the Champions League, those few places are pivotal for a club’s financial fortunes. Chelsea’s owners chose to hire from within their (small) multi-club operation, bringing in Liam Rosenior from the French club they own, RC Strasbourg. MCOs regularly trade players, but moving a manager within the group will be an experiment worth watching.     United are set to wait until the summer to appoint a permanent replacement for Amorim, with Crystal Palace coach Oliver Glasner among the favourites. The double sacking raises an important question — do head coaches actually make that much of a di...

The authoritative Swiss Ramble asks which clubs have benefitted most from European competition over the past decade.  Real Madrid have earned the most TV money from UEFA competitions in the last 10 years, being the only club to break through the billion Euros barrier with €1,021m. Four other clubs have received more than €800m in this period: Paris Saint-Germain €974m, Manchester City €935m, Bayern Munich €935m and Barcelona €836m. Half of the top six are from La Liga, as Atletico Madrid are in sixth place with €761m. The next highest English clubs are further back, namely Liverpool €725m, Chelsea €589m, Manchester United €537m, Arsenal €480m and Tottenham €429m. As might be expected, the so-called Big Six English clubs have received the lion’s share of UEFA TV money in the last 10 years, amounting to €3.7 bln or 90% of the English distribution.   Manchester City have been by far the most successful English club in Europe with their €935m being €110m more than the next hig...

Ruben Amorim has been sacked by Manchester United.  United have had six permanent managers since Sir Alex Ferguson retired in 2013 and have finished no higher than second in that time, achieved by both Jose Mourinho (2017-18) and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer (2020-21). The club have spent more than £50million ($67m, €57m) on removing managers since Ferguson left the role. The Portuguese’s final game of his 14-month spell as head coach was the 1-1 draw against Leeds United on Sunday that leaves them sixth in the Premier League after 20 matches. Former midfielder and current Under-18s coach Darren Fletcher will take charge on an interim basis, with his first game being away at Burnley on Wednesday night. A permanent appointment is likely to wait until the summer. The club’s leadership team, including chief executive Omar Berrada and director of football Jason Wilcox, arrived at the decision after a breakdown in relations behind the scenes. In his press conference ...

Manchester United may be leaner and fitter in financial terms since the arrival of Sir Jim Ratcliffe, but the desired level of success on the pitch is still elusive. Manchester United’s wage bill fell to £73.6million during the first quarter following the Old Trafford club’s restructuring programme and the loan exits of high earners Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho. United’s latest quarterly financial results revealed total revenues fell year-on-year during the first three months of the 2025-26 financial year, largely due to Ruben Amorim’s side failing to qualify for Europe and two fewer games played at Old Trafford.   Commercial revenues were also affected by United’s lack of a training kit partner following the end of a deal with block chain platform Tezos, worth in excess of £20m a year. Despite this, United’s wage-to-revenue ratio fell to a healthy 52.5 per cent, compared with 56 per cent for the same period last year. The club’s total spending on wages was £73.6m, down f...

  The authoritative Swiss Ramble looks at the gap between the ‘Big Six’ and other top flight clubs. They invariably have the financial muscle to ensure that results such as Unitrd and Spurs last season are the exception, rather than the rule, while other less fortunate clubs cannot afford a bad season or two, as shown by Leicester City’s decline since surprisingly winning the league. If we define success as qualifying for Europe, an achievement that has the added benefit of enhancing revenue streams, there is no debate around the success of the Big Six. In the last 15 years, there have been only two occasions when less than five members of the Big Six failed to qualify for European competitions. Indeed, in more than half of those seasons, all six clubs successfully negotiated this hurdle. Moreover, they almost always qualified for the lucrative Champions League. Out of the 63 slots available since 2010/11, all but four of them have gone to the Big Six, the only exceptions b...

Manchester United have more than footballing reasons to bear in mind when considering whether or not to bring the Amorim experiment to an abrupt end. Sacking managers/head coaches costs money and, at United, financial concerns have been a prominent topic since Sir Jim Ratcliffe acquired a stake in the club in February 2024. For almost 27 years from the late 1980s, United didn’t need to worry about what changing their manager would cost. Sir Alex Ferguson’s lengthy and wildly successful time in charge ensured any problems tended to reside away from the Old Trafford dugout. Much has changed since his 2013 retirement. Amorim is that dugout’s sixth permanent occupant in the subsequent 12 years. All that flux comes at a price. Ferguson’s own departure, while plainly not a sacking, brought about £2.4million ($3.2m at the current rate) in costs to remove coaching staff not wanted by his successor, David Moyes. Just 10 months into a six-year deal, Moyes was out by the following April. Remo...

Manchester United have had plans drawn up for a new Old Trafford where the canopy that caused such a stir when unveiled earlier this year is removed.  The club are looking at alternatives to the bold design presented in March by co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe and architect Sir Norman Foster, due to issues over purchasing the required land. Talks have been held with Freightliner, the company that owns much of the area to the west of the current ground, which had been earmarked for part of the new stadium footprint and some 17,000 homes. But Freightliner is demanding around £400million ($535m) for the land, according to sources familiar with proceedings who spoke on the condition of anonymity, substantially higher than United’s projected price in the region of £50m, as first reported by The Guardian. The company is willing to relocate the freight terminal to a new site but is so far holding out for a major windfall. Amid the impasse, United are considering different optio...

  Manchester United’s annual report for the 2024-25 season, published on Thursday evening, showed the club’s net transfer debt at the end of June was £344.5m — £73.4m and 27 per cent higher than when Ratcliffe and INEOS gained sporting control at Old Trafford. It is a huge sum and it does not even include United’s post-June transfer activity, when a further £92.1m net was spent. Transfer debt is on the rise across football, particularly in the Premier League, where the quantum of club spending outstrips the ability to pay it off in one swoop. Pushing payments into the future is also generally advantageous — provided inflation doesn’t hit or dip below zero, the money in your pocket now is more valuable than it will be in the future as purchasing power diminishes. Even so, United’s transfer debt is massive, sitting at 52 per cent of a revenue figure for which the club have already projected a £7m to £27m decline in 2025-26. The only Premier League clubs whose transfer debt to rev...