The Political Economy of Football V2

Calculations by the authoritative Swiss Ramble suggest that three clubs have already received more than €90m from this season’s Champions League, namely Liverpool €100m, Arsenal €91m and Barcelona €90m.  They are closely followed by Bayer Leverkusen €89m, Atletico Madrid €86m and Inter €86m.   The top eight clubs have all banked more than €30m in prize money, ranging from Liverpool’s €38.3m to Aston Villa’s €32.7m The country that has earned most to date from the Champions League is Germany with €349m, just ahead of England €340m, followed by Italy €310m, Spain €291m and France €272m.   There is then a big gap from the Big Five leagues to Portugal €112m and Netherlands €107m, both of whom have two clubs in this season’s Champions League. If we instead look at the average per club, then the dominance of the Premier League becomes apparent, as England are by far the highest with €85m, comfortably ahead of Spain €73m, Germany €70m, France €68m and Italy €62m. Clea...

BetVictor has ended its two year sponsorship deal with the Northern Premier League, Isthmian League and Southern League. The deal was worth £100,000 a year. The gambling company opted to exercise a break clause after one year because of the negative reception the sponsorship received and because some clubs did not meet its requirements. Negative stories in the national press bothered BetVictor and led them to believe that the risk to their brand exceeded the digital benefits which were their main focus. After the coronavirus outbreak it will be hard to find a replacement. Northern Premier League chairman Mark Harris commented: 'Would we looking for a betting partner again? I have to say it wouldn't be my first choice.' 'The lesson out of this is that betting is so heavily regulated and is so heavily ensconced in social attitudes - particularly through social media - my preference this time would be to go for a sponsor that isn't quite from such a heavily regu...