The Political Economy of Football V2

  Manchester United staff have been shaken after learning the club have told their longest-serving employee, and their main point of contact with Uefa and the Premier League for match operations, that her job is at risk of redundancy. Marie Marron has been at Old Trafford for 47 years, initially serving as the personal assistant to the club secretary at the time, Ken Merrett, but becoming a key figure in first-team logistics, acting as the liaison with Uefa and the Premier League as well as the FA and opposing teams before matches. She is also the voice of VAR on match days at Old Trafford. Marron was the chief co-ordinator for United’s historic Treble in 1999 and was among five long-serving staff who were honoured by the club sponsors in 2013 for their “exceptional dedication and commitment” to the United team. But in a week when United moved a significant step closer to reaching another major European final with their stunning 3-0 victory in Bilbao, The Times unde...

Networks of football clubs in shared ownership are a growing phenomenon. The best known is City Football Group which controls Manchester City alongside a global network of clubs. Red Bull Salzburg in Austria has substantial influence over RB Leipzig in Germany. Controversial Charlton Athletic owner Roland Duchatelet tried to construct his own network which ran from Spain to Hungary via England and Belgium. It has now been largely dismantled. The latest network is being constructed by Jim Ratcliffe, a reclusive 67-year old Briton who has made his money through his low profile petrochemicals company Ineos. He has an estimated fortune of £18bm. He has invested in a wide array of sporting assets from sailing to cycling (he is a Manchester United fan). All football clubs in a network benefit from shared scouting networks, data analysis teams and coaches. But at Ineos, each club could get an edge from experts in different sporting disciplines, such as nutritionists and physiotherapis...