The Political Economy of Football V2

A three-way fight for promotion between a New York hedge fund, a Kazakh billionaire and two Hollywood actors has fuelled a record transfer splurge in English football’s third tier, as wealthy team owners look to get ahead of tighter financial rules taking effect this summer. The 24 clubs in League One have spent almost €56mn this season — more than the total for the past eight seasons combined — according to figures from data website Transfermarkt. Table-topping Birmingham City, owned since 2023 by US hedge fund Knighthead Capital, has spent more than €35mn, equivalent to about 63 per cent of the league’s total spend. Birmingham City smashed the League One transfer record last summer to sign striker Jay Stansfield from Fulham for €17.8mn. The club is also responsible for the next two most expensive signings in the division: Christoph Klarer at €4.15mn and Willum Thór Willumsson for €4mn. Huddersfield Town, owned by US businessman Kevin Nagle, spent more than €3mn on forward Joe Tay...

Perhaps it says something about the landscape of Sky Bet League One that it took a run of ten consecutive wins for people to really sit up and take notice of Wycombe Wanderers — a club, after all, owned by a Georgian billionaire, with a bright, young, English manager in Matt Bloomfield and, in Richard Kone, a free-scoring striker whose journey could be turned into a movie one day. Such is life, though, for clubs in the orbit of Wrexham and Birmingham City, whose celebrity patrons and lavish spending cast a long shadow over England’s third tier these days. Wycombe, however, have registered more wins, collected more points and scored more goals than any team in the country — and, with a third of the season gone, they have a four-point cushion at the top. An 11th win in a row arrived at Wealdstone on Saturday, which put them in the hat for the FA Cup third-round draw on Monday night. Wycombe, who spent a season in the Sky Bet Championship in 2020-21, have long relished their und...

Almost all Premier League clubs are now American owned and some foreign investors have seen the Championship as a cheaper route to the riches of the top flight.   In time the franchise owners will question whether their investments can be relegated which does not happen in the US. Charlton fans, admittedly among football's leading moaners, sometimes assert that League One is a pub or crap league, so it was interesting to read in this week's  Football League Paper  what two newly promoted managers think. Gareth Ainsworth forged Wycombe Wanderers into a League One force and indeed, somewhat to my surprise, they are currently chairing the division. Ainsworth has now taken on the unenviable task of reviving Shropshire's finest and he made a first rate start against moneybags club Birmingham City on Saturday. Ainsworth says: 'Over the years, this division has probably run away from the smaller clubs. League One has got stronger and stronger over the years.   Som...

Former Wycombe owner Rob Couhig is poised to take over at Wycombe ending the chaos at the club under Dai Yongge:  https://www.theguardian.com/football/article/2024/jul/09/reading-takeover-former-wycombe-owner-rob-couhig-dai-yongge?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Wycombe Wanderers lost almost £3 million in 22/23 as total losses over the years  upto almost £10m, reports football finance guru Kieran Maguire. Wycombe did not sign any players for fees in 22/23. Maguire states that it looks as if Wycombe’s losses in 22/23 were funded by £600k of fresh shares and about £2m from ‘other creditors’ which could be from the owners.

Reading owner Dai Yongge has agreed to sell the club’s Bearwood Park training ground to local rivals Wycombe Wanderers, less than five years after the state-of-the-art facility was opened. The former Premier League side were in the Championship then and only two years into the Chinese businessman’s tenure as owner. The 2019 move to the £50million site, set in 120 acres of picturesque woodlands only five miles from the club’s stadium, was meant to signal Reading’s ambition to return to the top flight. Having already sold their stadium to a company controlled by Dai in 2019, Reading now face the prospect of renting their own training ground, too, with their landlords being near-neighbours Wycombe. This will come as a bitter blow to the club’s fans, as the only sale they want is Dai handing over the club, with all its assets, as soon as possible. However, that prospect looks as remote as Reading’s chances of returning to the Premier League, as a group led by former...

Wycombe Wanderers lost almost £2.5 million in the 11 months to 30 June 2022 taking total losses to £6.8m. This was the main contribution to the club’s cash balance falling from £3.6m to less than £8,000. No reference in accounts to any Derby County settlement. Wycombe bought players for £137k in 21/22. The accounts cover the period where they had three play-off games including the Wembley final so their gate receipts for this period would be about as high as they could be in a League One season.

League One is littered with clubs who have fallen from the grace of Premier League membership over the last 30 years — Wycombe in beechy Bucks are one of the exceptions to that rule.   Historically, High Wycombe was a home to the furniture industry, hence their nickname.  The setting of their ground, albeit reached through a trading estate, is impressively rural. They were only promoted to the Football League for the first time in 1993 and have spent the majority of the time since flitting between the third and fourth tiers, before reaching the Championship for the first time in 2020-21. The average attendance for their home games at 10,000-capacity Adams Park this season is under 6,000. The gap in resources compared to Sunderland and Sheffield Wednesday, who will contest the division’s other play-off semi-final, is more like a chasm. American businessman and lawyer Rob Couhig completed a takeover of the club from the supporters’ trust in February 2020 and travels f...

The Football League has given the administrators of Derby County until February 1st to find enough money to fund the club for the remainder of the season, or they could have their “golden share” suspended, which means the EFL could remove them from the Championship.  Given Derby were penalised for breaches of the Profit and Sustainability rules, Middlesbrough owner Steve Gibson believes Derby “systematically cheated” in the 2018-19 season and, as a result, unlawfully prevented his club from competing for Premier League status in the play-offs.   Wycombe Wanderers, feel aggrieved that Derby secured survival last season at the expense of their club. A bidder already has the enormous task of settling debts of £60 million. In previous football administrations, HMRC, who Derby owe £29.3 million, would only be entitled to 25 per cent of what they are owed. However, in response to the country’s effort to rebuild the economy from the pandemic, HMRC regained preferential creditor s...

Wycombe Wanderers owner Rob Couhig is monitoring the fall-out from Derby County’s decision to enter administration and has told  The Athletic  his side lost £10 million through their relegation to League One last season — when Derby stayed up on the final day by a point. Couhig says there could be as much as another £10 million of “residual loss”. He and Wycombe are assessing their next move. “There is no doubt in my mind, and everybody knows, that Derby should have been penalised last season, that we should be playing in the Championship now and that this has cost the club upwards of £10 million that we can immediately show,” Couhig says. “There is then a residual loss that’s probably another £10 million. “It’s a lot to digest, but for a club like Wycombe that had never played in the Championship in 133 years of existence, to be there and stay for a second year would be transformative. It changes the whole basis of things, with sponsors and the like.” The EFL...

An independent disciplinary commission has fined Derby County £100,000 and required the club to restate its accounts for three financial years:  https://www.efl.com/news/2021/june/-derby-county/ As a contingency an interchangeable fixture list has been developed for the Rams and Wycombe Wanderers should the EFL appeal. As far as the restatement of accounts is concerned, Kieran Maguire of the PriceofFootball comments: 'Rough calculations suggest Derby would still be within the £39m loss limit for 2016-18 because the profit on sale of Pride Park more than offsets the higher depreciation charge. Further issue is how the £12m profit on writing off some shares in 2016 is classified for FFP.' He adds, 'Broadcast income approximately £7m in Championship and £1.1m in League One, makes it very difficult to budget for next season unless EFL decide not to appeal.'

It is being reported that the English Football League (EFL) have won an appeal relating to a Financial Fair Play charge brought against the Derby County in January last year regarding how the club amortises a player's contract. That was one of two charges put to the club, the other relating to the sale of Pride Park Stadium. The Rams were cleared of both charges and the EFL did not appeal the stadium charge, choosing only to fight the amortisation one. There has been some speculation that the Rams could still be relegated after a points deduction.  However, I think it is unlikely that a deduction would be applied retrospectively to the 2020/21 season, although a points deduction next season is possible. Wycombe Wanderers, who finished one point and one place below Wayne Rooney’s team and were relegated, are considering the option of legal action to see if the EFL’s pursuit of Derby over alleged breaches of financial fair play (FFP) has been exhausted, reports Michael Walker. ...

The takeover of Wycombe Wanderers from the Supporters Trust has been completed with American businessman and sports team owner Rob Couhig acquiring a 75 per cent stake: It's a done deal 95 per cent of eligible Trust members voted in favour of the takeover. Former chairman Trevor Stroud, who remains on the board, said: 'Today is the day that we pass the baton to Rob Couhig, as the new majority shareholder of Wycombe Wanderers, and thank him for the commitment he has shown to the club ever since accepting our call in June to support the club financially and operationally. Without his contribution at the time, we were facing an extremely precarious position and I don’t believe the club would be in the position it is now had Rob not come forward.' Kieran Maguire of the PriceofFootball has tweeted: 'Wycombe Wanderers lost £868,000 in 2018/19 and are technically insolvent as liabilities exceed assets. This may further explain why the supporters’ trust sold the club to pri...

The takeover of League One side Wycombe Wanderers by American lawyer Rob Couhig is set to go ahead after members of the club's Trust voted to sell a 75% stake in the club to him. More than three-quarters of members needed to approve Couhig's bid for his firm Feliciana EFL Ltd to take over. Couhig's company will invest £2.2m to settle Wanderers' existing debts and make an additional £1m available. They will also fund a new 15-year lease on Adams Park at £150,000 a year. Under the deal, two directors will remain on the club's board from the Wycombe Wanderers Trust. Couhig was involved in a takeover bid for Yeovil Town, but pulled out after they were relegated to the National League. The more general point that arises here is how far fans running a club offers a sustainable solution to the challenges facing football. Most clubs run at a loss or, if they are put on a very tight budget, they are unlikely to succeed on the pitch. But fans collectively cannot cover c...

The English Football League has issued a portmanteau statement om Bolton Wanderers and Bury. If they do not supply certain evidence by 5 pm today, their opening fixtures may be suspended: EFL statement Wycombe Wanderers have suspended ticket sales for their home fixture against Bolton on Saturday. Bolton's match is now going ahead, but Bury's will not take place, a bleak prospect for the club.