The Political Economy of Football V2

Just when you think Wolverhampton Wanderers are going to be a normal football club, back come Gestifute and Jorge Mendes to remind everyone what they signed up for. The reaction of thousands of Wolves supporters to Rob Edwards suddenly being sacked — or indeed neutrals seeing the surprising news break late on Wednesday night or early on Thursday morning — will have been a collective: “What? Huh?” That will have been immediately followed by a click on Google to search “Cesar Peixoto”. He is considered one of the most promising coaches in Portuguese football. And he has inspired Gil Vicente to be able to compete with clubs boasting significantly larger budgets. However, his career history is checkered to say the least. He was sacked after short-term stints at Pacos de Ferreira and Moreirense, and his 15 months in charge at Gil Vicente is the longest he has lasted at any club. While guiding them to sixth in the Primeira Liga is a notable achievement, it’s not exactly unhea...

The chief UK financial regulator has warned Premier League football clubs they could face legal action over “questionable sponsorship deals” with crypto companies that are not authorised to operate in Britain. The Financial Conduct Authority has written a letter to Premier League men’s clubs stating they risk enforcement action by taking sponsorship money from crypto and trading companies that are not permitted to offer services in the UK. Crypto companies have become prolific sponsors of top-tier teams in recent years as they seek to tap into the millions of football supporters and encourage them to trade digital tokens.  The FCA said it had seen “an increase in football club partnerships with unauthorised firms, some of which appear to be operating unlawfully”. In the letter, Fiona Mackinnon-Miller, head of the FCA department overseeing scams, promotions and consumer investments, warned that such deals “risk conferring legitimacy on these firms and may expose UK consumers to ...

Chelsea’s underachievement this season has been highlighted by a financial analysis that says only Wolverhampton Wanderers have performed worse in the Premier League compared to money splashed out by the top flight’s biggest spenders.  One Chelsea fan described it as ‘epic mismanagement.’ Despite spending £637 million on wages, transfers and agents fees, Chelsea finished tenth — 33 points behind champions Arsenal — and missed out on the European places. Sunderland’s achievement in qualifying for the Europa League spot secured them billing as the best value for money along with Arsenal, followed by Brentford, Bournemouth and Brighton & Hove Albion. After Wolves and Chelsea, Burnley were the next worst-performing, followed by Tottenham Hotspur. Omar Chaudhuri, the chief intelligence officer at the sports intelligence agency Twenty First Group, which carried out the analysis for The Times, said: “Chelsea are in the top two spenders but have failed to qualify for th...

When I started watching football in 1953, the visit of Wolves to The Valley was very much to be feared.  With Billy Wright as captain, they were one of the country's top clubs.   There have been many ups and downs since then, but I cherished my occasional lunches with a lifelong supporter who sadly eventually passed away at an advanced age. It doesn't take a genius to work out what has gone wrong recently, but the Swiss Ramble provides a forensic analysis of what has gone wrong using the 2024/25 accounts and his own extensive and unrivaled data set, more can be found on Substack.   Some highlights below. Last night I was watching the gripping conclusion to the world snooker final from Sheffield.  When the young Chinese challenger won, the representative of the equivalent sporting body from China made sure that he was wrapped in the Chinese flag for all the photos.   No doubt the sporting body is approved by the Communist Party. I have only been to...

If the dark cloud of Wolverhampton Wanderers’ horrific season has one grim silver lining, it is that they have had plenty of opportunity to prepare for the worst. In fact, for the past few months, the powers that be at Molineux have been planning for the inevitable. It should be noted, however, that the highly competitive Championship is different from the top flight and adjusting after seven years away will be a challenge. Now, with relegation finally certain, interim chairman Nathan Shi and the rest of the Wolves hierarchy have the chance to prove that the rare luxury of time has not been wasted. Their challenges are many and varied, but the key aims include: Managing a huge summer of squad changes, with sales needed to help bridge the income drop created by relegation Taking advantage of risky January sales by ensuring the bulk of Edwards’ new squad is in place for the majority of pre-season Winning around angry fans and persuading back former ...

Wolverhampton Wanderers booked a £15.3 million ($20.2m) loss in their 2024-25 Premier League season, even as they reaped £117m in player-trading profits — by some distance a new club record.  Wolves’ latest books also paint a picture of a club in decline on the pitch, very much setting the scene for their awful 2025-26 campaign. Wolves extended their accounting period, moving their May year-end date to June, and in doing so were able to book the sales of Matheus Cunha and Rayan Ait-Nouri, to Manchester United and Manchester City respectively, into last season’s accounts. Wolves’ revenue fell by £5.7m last season, driven by dropping from finishing 14th in the Premier League in 2023-24 to 16th and also having two fewer games selected for live broadcast (15, against the 17 a year earlier). Those factors reduced broadcast income by £8.4m, and that revenue stream is likely to decline further this term. Like most Premier League clubs outside the ‘Big Six’, Wolves rely on TV money f...

The 2023/24 accounts marked Wolves’ eighth season under the ownership of Fosun and their sixth consecutive campaign in the Premier League.  Indeed, although the owners have faced plenty of criticism recently, it should be noted that the club has improved during their tenure from the lower reaches of the Championship. Since Fosun bought Wolves, the club has lost money six years out of eight, including a hefty £128m in the last three seasons alone. Initially, investment in the squad led to £80m net losses in the Championship, though the owners’ gamble did pay off, as this helped secure promotion to the Premier League. However, to outside observers it would appear that Wolves have hit a wall, having twice finished seventh in the Premier League, and also qualifying for the Europa League, where they reached the quarter-finals.   Since those heady days, the club has cut back on its spending, leading to some struggles on the pitch. In fact, as it stands, although they are surely ...

Wolverhampton Wanderers’ latest set of accounts contained few surprises. The gist of the results for the 2023-24 financial year had been well-trailed in messages from the club in recent times. So it was widely expected that the club would make another loss, but that the figure would be much smaller than in the previous two seasons. With the Premier League’s rules on permitted losses clear in their minds, Wolves made a concerted effort at the start of the financial year to sell players to ensure they complied. And the policy worked, with Wolves avoiding any sanctions. For the third year in a row, Wolves made a pre-tax loss but the figure was hugely reduced from £67.2million ($85.4m) in 2023 to £14.3m in 2023-24.   Turnover rose from £168.6m in 2023 to £177.7m in 2024, while the net player trading loss — a metric the club uses which combines player sale profits with amortisation and contract impairments — was reduced from £38.6m in 2023 to £2.6m in 2024. The latest figures take...

When the European Super League launched (briefly) in 2021, one of the main arguments for tearing down football’s status quo was that fans were being deprived of exciting matches between elite teams.  Evidence this week suggests that argument was built on sand. When Liverpool visited AC Milan in the opening game of this season’s Champions League, one of the main talking points was of empty seats inside the San Siro. While the Italian club had an average home attendance for league matches last season of just under 72,000, local estimates put Tuesday’s turnout at around 60,000. So what’s going on? Milan have started the season slowly — and lost the game against Liverpool 3-1. But more than 71,000 showed up a few days earlier to see the  Rossoneri  host Venezia in an Italian league match.  The main culprit for Tuesday night’s empty seats appears to be rising ticket prices — seats in the lower tier of the San Siro began at more than €120. The issue of rising costs f...

Even if last season’s performance was a little disappointing, Wolves did end up comfortably securing their sixth consecutive season in the top flight since promotion in 2018.   It also looks as if they have remained within the Premier League's profitability and sustainability rules, unlike Nottingham Forest. Wolves’ pre-tax loss widened from £46m to £67m, despite revenue rising £3m (2%) from £166m to £169m and profit from player sales nearly tripling from £15m to £44m.   However, operating expenses surged £45m (20%) from £224m to £265m, while net interest payable almost doubled from £5.6m to £10.4m. In addition, there was no repeat of the previous year’s £2.7m other operating income. Since Fosun bought Wolves, the club has lost money in five years out of seven, including a hefty £113m in the last two seasons alone. Initially, investment in the squad led to £80m net losses in the Championship, though the owners’ gamble paid off, as this helped secure promotion to the P...

Losses at Wolves have gone up to £67m in 2022/23 from £46m the previous season, but they are not at risk of financial fair play sanctions:  https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/68456113 Football finance guru Kieran Maguire comments: 'Revenue was up slightly but major increases in player costs meant that Wolves had operating loss of £100 million before player sales reduced this to loss before tax of just £67million. Alarming though that established PL club losing £184,000 a day.'

At the home of the Premier League and European champions, it is not a shock to see Haaland and Jack Grealish feature prominently inside the superstore at the Etihad Stadium. Haaland, 23, pulls in huge numbers after helping his side to the treble last season and his No 9 shirt, the first you see when walking inside the City Store, is the most purchased. Fanatics, a global digital sports platform, tells  The Athletic  that Haaland has sold the most shirts across Europe through their site this year, but that Bellingham is quickly catching up. Specific numbers around shirt sales were not disclosed by clubs or retailers when requested by  The Athletic , but at City, this has been a record year for the retail department, highlighted this summer when their new shirt was bought every 12 seconds on the day of release — the busiest 24 hours of trading they have ever recorded. Across town at United, the days of queueing outside Old Trafford to get a printed ‘Ron...

Chelsea’s £408m gross transfer spend this summer was almost twice as much as the next highest club in the Premier League, which was Tottenham with £216m. Two other clubs spent more than £200m, namely Manchester City £210m and Arsenal £204m. In fact, half of the clubs in the Premier League had gross spend above £100m, including Bournemouth £111m and Nottingham Forest £107m. Some of the smallest outlays were at two of the promoted clubs (Luton Town £20m and Sheffield United £56m), while Everton and Crystal Palace also spent a relatively low amount with £35m and £34m respectively. Chelsea also led the way in terms of player sales with £232m, followed by Brighton £165m, Wolves £149m, Manchester City £139m and West Ham £136m. In contrast, five Premier League clubs made less than £10m from player sales: Brentford £9m, Burnley £3m, Bournemouth £1m, Crystal Palace £1m and Luton Town, who sold nobody for money (according to Transfermarkt). The big spenders Chelsea also had the highest...

  I used to see a lifelong Wolves fan for lunch once a month.   He was approaching ninety, but still went to games.   Sadly he passed away the other week. As football finance guru Kieran Maguire has noted, Wolves continue to be constrained by financial fair play rules.  Radio 4 this morning described them as this year's 'crisis club' and the pessimists have certainly been piling in. Martin Samuel wrote sympathetically in the Sunday Times yesterday, saying that the Premier League drives talent away with regulatory red tape: 'Why could Al-Hilal sign Neves? Because Wolves needed the money. And why did Wolves need the money? Because the club had to comply with an artificial construct known as financial fair play. So Wolves are going skint, yes? No. There is no suggestion that Wolves are in financial trouble, only that they are failing to meet the rigours of FFP. Wolves’ owners appear to have the money to run the club, and invest in the club, and in fact came ...

These are challenging times at Wolves. It is a period unlike anything seen since the Chinese conglomerate Fosun purchased Wolves in 2016 and it comes amid widespread speculation the club are for sale — a claim that is repeatedly denied but refuses to go away, especially as Grasshoppers Zurich, effectively Wolves’ sister club, are on the market. The need to bring in more money than they spend is due in part to the risk of breaching the Premier League’s regulations on profit and sustainability, known commonly as financial fair play (FFP). But the issue is broader than simply staying within the rules. Fosun have invested heavily in Wolves in recent years, writing off a £126.5million ($163.5m) loan in the 2020-21 accounts and at least partly funding around £175million of spending in the past two transfer windows, even if much of the money in the past year has been spent poorly. Now they want a return on their investment, not just on the pitch, but on the balance sheet, too. The...

The authoritative Swiss Ramble reviews the latest accounts of Wolverhampton Wanderers:  https://swissramble.substack.com/p/wolverhampton-wanderers-finances Wolves’ £46m pre-tax loss is obviously not great, but it was by no means the worst financial result in the Premier League in 2021/22, as even larger losses have been reported by Manchester United £150m, Leicester City £92m and Tottenham £61m. Wolves £15m profit from player sales in 2021/22 was much lower than the prior season’s £61m, but this was more in line with their normal performance, as they only made £63m profit combined in the eight years between 2013 and 2020. This season will be better after the sales of Morgan Gibbs-White to Nottingham Forest, Leander Dendocker to Aston Villa and Ruben Vinaigre to Sporting. The exact amount of Gibbs-White’s deal has not been disclosed, but most reports have the fee as £25m plus a potential £17m add-ons. Wolves’ gross financial debt increased by £57m from £61m to £118m, mainly a ...

Wolves had day to day losses of £58m in 2021/22, reports Kieran Maguire. Insurance claim and player sale profits reduced this to ‘just’ £40m, before interest costs added a further £5m to expenses. Wolves spent £29m more cash than they generated in day to day trading. Net cash player spend was £11m. As a result Club had to borrow a further £44m from banks. Revenue was not very comparable to previous year which was distorted by lockdown. Matchday up as crowds returned, broadcast down as fewer matches played compared to 20/21. Total wage bill down £19m partly due to fewer matches played. Staff numbers up as lockdown ended. Highest paid director income up 50%. Interest on loans over £100k a week.    Wolves owe £104m to banks and pay interest of 7% on the sum. Also borrowed from Fosun in the year interest free. Wolves bought players for £31m and had sales of £20m.   Wolves had a net transfer spend of £121m in the summer 22/Jan 23 windows.

The tireless Swiss Ramble deploys his financial acumen to assess the latest accounts of Wolverhampton Wanderers from his Zurich base. I was at this game - needless to say Charlton lost. When I started watching football in the early 1950s Wolves were one of the top teams so it is good to see them approach former glories after some very difficult years when they almost collapsed altogether.    Jack Hayward was, of course, their saviour. On Thursday I shall be having lunch with a lifelong Wolves supporter who still goes to matches in his late 80s.    He recently saw a match from a box for the first time. Wolves have come a long way As a sign of how far Wolves have come since playing in League One in 2014, their £133m revenue in 2019/20 placed them 29th in the Deloitte Money League, which ranks clubs worldwide. This was down from previous season’s 25th, but ahead of Milan £130m and just behind Ajax £136m. The 2020/21 accounts show they swung from £40m pre-tax los...

Wolves have reported a loss of £39.3m in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.  This compares witha a £10m operating profit in the previous year. However, the club states: 'It is important to note that, has broadcast revenues from suspended matches not been deferred, the club would have achieved a profit of £17.9m for the season, even with the permanent loss of matchday revenues for the final five home games of the season.' Club statement and link to full accounts here:  https://www.wolves.co.uk/news/club/20210319-headline-financial-information-for-201920/

Immediately upon their return to the Premier League in the 2018/19 season following a six-year absence, Wolverhampton Wanderers managed to increase their commercial income three-fold from the year prior to £29.3 million, even higher than other top flight clubs such as Crystal Palace, Burnley and Southampton. With an emphasis on sports and entertainment, Wolverhampton are seeking to become more than just a football club, according to their international partnership sales manager Alan Liu. The club define themselves as a 'challenger brand' playing catch up with some of Europe's heavy hitters. Esports in particular is an important area of focus that also enables Wolves to reach a more female audience.