The Political Economy of Football V2

Shahid Khan has withdrawn his £600m offer to buy Wembley Stadium: Deal off. It had become evident that the proposal would not receive the hoped for two-thirds majority from the FA Council or anything near it at a meeting scheduled for next week. The 127 person Council is dominated by the 'blazer brigade' from the county associations whom I see strutting around at non-league matches. This of itself says something about the FA's cumbersome and outdated decision-making. One person close to the process told the Financial Times 'There is a reason why England has not won a World Cup since 1966 when decisions are made by a governing body that is organised like this.' Reaction has necessarily been mixed to what was a divisive proposal. Mark Palios, a former FA chief executive and now chairman of Tranmere Rovers, said on Radio 5 that decision-making should not be driven by emotion and sentiment. David Conn among others has said that the Premier League should increas...

Opposition to the sale of Wembley to Shahid Khan is hardening ahead of the FA Council meeting in a week's time. In the minutes of the latest meeting of the Tottenham Hotspur Supporters Trust with the Spurs board on October 9th chairman Daniel Levy was asked whether Shahid Khan’s potential purchase of Wembley Stadium would impact on THFC’s plans for the NFL. Levy said it wouldn’t but he was against the sale of Wembley regardless. He felt any London franchise was a long way off but the NFL still had the International Series so there was ample opportunity for Spurs. He pointed out that the second pitch wasn’t solely an NFL pitch. It was a multi-purpose pitch that was suitable for the NFL. Khan is the owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars NFL team and wants to use Wembley for more of the team's matches. Spurs agreed a ten year partnership with the NFL for their new stadium but delays in completing the ground meant that the Seattle Seahawks played Oakland Rangers at Wembley on Su...

A friend who is not particularly interested in football asked me for my opinion on the sale of Wembley Stadium to Shahid Khan, the owner of Fulham. I have been intending to write a piece of analysis on this, but other stories have intervened. However, I told her that I thought the proposed deal was very dodgy and certainly there are signs of increasing resistance from the FA Council, despite the promise of a bonanza for grass roots football. It is interesting that The Economist ran an article on the topic in their last issue. They don't write a lot about football, but what they do is usually quite authoritative (or at least they would like to think it is). They noted that the view that selling Wembley was not the best way to modernise the game was gathering momentum. They admitted that valuing Wembley as a stadium is particularly hard as it is not part of a rich Premier League club. They pointed out that the cash the FA would receive would be substantially lower than the am...