The Political Economy of Football V2

Interviews with two leading football finance experts: A need to think outside the box The FA has effectively asked clubs to run their business at a loss in the short term in the hope of trying to achieve growth further down the line. WSL attendances were down by 11 per cent last season.

Chelsea have shelved plans to build a new stadium at Stamford Bridge 'due to the current investment climate': Stamford Bridge It is not clear when Chelsea will revive their plan, if at all. The estimated cost for a new 60,000 seat Stamford Bridge has increased to £1bn after delays, which included a dispute with a local family. The news comes after Roman Abramovich's 'investment' visa to the UK was not renewed and he subsequently took up Israeli citizenship. Abramovich is unwilling to invest in a major project in a country where he is not allowed to work. With Arsenal having built their new stadium and Spurs near to completing theirs, the stadium redevelopment was seen as key as securing Chelsea as a leading London club in the long term. With a capacity of just over 41,000, Stamford Bridge is the eighth largest stadium in London.

The authoritative Swiss Ramble takes a look at Brentford's accounts for 2016/17. Brentford's loss was significantly reduced from £12.6m to just £1.0m, as revenue rose £2.1m (20%) to £12.7m, though profit on player sales fell £2.7m to £12.8m. Main reason for improvement was £4.7m accounting adjustment for unwinding discount on shareholder loans in 2015/16. The main driver for Brentford's £2.1m revenue growth was the new Premier League TV deal, resulting in a higher solidarity payment, thus increasing broadcasting income by £2.3m to £7.2m. Ticketing income also rose £0.5m to £3.5m, but commercial fell £0.7m to £2.0m (academy closure). The club managed to cut many costs: wage bill by £2.9m (17%) to £14.7m, other expenses by £2.5m (26%) to £7.4m. As a consequence, the Bees very nearly broke-even. In fact, their £1.0m loss was only bettered by five Championship clubs, three of whom made profits below £4m. However, the club's loss would have been much higher without a he...

Ligue One has always lagged behind the other top European leagues in terms of TV rights, but now it has secured a 60 per cent increase from 2020: Ligue 1 deal Vivendi, the incumbent French media titan, was ousted. In its place, Chinese-backed Mediapro scooped three of the biggest packages on offer, out of seven in total. Qatar-based beIN took another package and France’s fourth-biggest mobile firm Free secured the fifth. The final two sets were unsold. Quite why Mediapro splashed out is a bit of a mystery.

The English Premier League is reportedly poised to sell its last two remaining domestic media rights packages for the next cycle to incumbent broadcasters Sky and BT Sport. The news comes after rights packages F and G - covering a total of 40 live midweek and bank holiday matches per season between 2019 and 2022 - went unsold during an auction in February that saw Sky and BT pay a combined £4.464 billion for the five main packages. The initial bidding saw Sky pocket four of the five packages to claim a toal of 128 matches, with BT purchasing 32 matches per season. According to league rules, Sky is only able to acquire one of the last two packages since no broadcaster can purchase more than 148 matches per season in total. Reports suggest clubs are now willing to accept a cut-price bid for the remaining rights after Premier League executive chairman Richard Scudamore misread long-mooted interest from the likes of social media giants Amazon, Twitter and Facebook - all of whom were the...

The authoritative Swiss Ramble has taken a look at Aston Villa's financial fair play position. The conclusion is that they will be fine for 2017/18, but will need to take action to meet the 2018/19 target. FFP is assessed over a three-year period (current season plus previous two seasons). The annual allowable loss is £13m in Championship and £35m in Premier League, so Villa's maximum FFP losses are £83m in 2016/17, £61m in 2017/18 and £39m from 2018/19. One point that should be noted is that FFP losses are different from losses in the accounts, so Aston Villa can exclude around £11m a year (for academy £5.9m, community £2.0m and infrastructure £2.9m) plus once-off stadium revaluation (booked as £45m impairment in 2015/16). The Swiss Ramble notes, 'In this way, I’ve calculated that Aston Villa were £38m below FFP limit of £83m in 2016/17.' So Aston Villa 2017/18 loss before tax is estimated at £37m, i.e. £22m worse than 2016/17. After excluding £78m (FFP deductions ...

Congratulations to Coventry City on winning promotion to League One at Wembley. Their fans have had to suffer a lot. It's worth taking a second look at an analysis of their finances Kieran Maguire of the Price of Football wrote earlier in the year: Sky Blues