The Political Economy of Football V2

The commercial property firm run by an American said to be bankrolling a proposed takeover of Everton defaulted on loans and auditors raised concerns about the future of the company. Maciek Kaminski is said to be providing the bulk of the £500m for the takeover of the club by a consortium fronted by Peter Kenyon.   The consortium has a period of exclusive negotiations with the club. The Kaminski family are deliberately private and there is little public information about their wealth.  Maciek or 'Michael' Kaminski has been the subject of an investigation by the Internal Revenue Service in the US and last year failed in a court action to prevent the IRS seizing his bank records.

Derby County's joint administrator has formally accepted local property developer David Clowes's offer to buy the club.   It is hoped to complete the deal by Wednesday.  Clowes Developments Ltd. has already bought Pride Park and issued an interim loan to the club. Clowes emerged as the potential new owner after American businessman Chris Kirchner withdrew his offer to buy the club.

From 2012, Manchester United’s revenue grew year on year, other than a slight dip in 2015, until it hit a record £627.1 million for the year ending June 2019. It then dropped to £509 million in 2020 and again to £494.1 million in their latest set of annual accounts (2021). Despite failing to achieve sustained success on the pitch in the past decade, United were still able to generate huge sums of money because of their illustrious history. But with interest payments on their debt — servicing the Glazer family’s leveraged buyout in 2005 — over the last decade understood to total £282 million and dividend pay-outs since 2016 hitting £122 million, the club’s losses are being accelerated. United will point to the fact that paying the dividends has not dented their ability to invest over £1 billion since 2013 and that the percentage is small when compared to overall revenue. And, although the Glazers receive the overwhelming majority of the cash, the dividends also go to pens...

John Textor, the man fronting the €800mn takeover of French football club Olympique Lyonnais, is betting he can solve football’s money problem. “Unfortunately, football is very much about money,” Textor told journalists this week. With a background in technology, Textor thinks football clubs can generate revenues from new sources aside from ticket and merchandise sales, broadcast deals and sponsorships. But it is his network of clubs — he controls Belgian side  RWD Molenbeek , Brazil’s  Botafogo , and a 40 per cent share of  Crystal Palace   — that could be critical to finding an edge. While he’s visited Palace’s first-team training facilities a handful of times, Textor says he’s been to the youth academy on 50 separate occasions. “That really tells you what my interests are, I love the youth development side of the sport,” he said. “What I like about Eagle Football and our strategy is that we are attempting to create a family of highly collabo...

The authoritative Swiss Ramble reviews the latest accounts of Stoke City.   Thepre-tax loss narrowed from £88m to £10m, despite revenue falling £10m (19%) from £50m to £40m and profit on player sales decreasing £2m to £1m, as they made £33m profit on the sale of stadium and training ground. Operating expenses down £55m (39%). Loss after tax was £8m. Following four consecutive years of (small) profits between 2014 and 2017, Stoke have now posted losses four years in a row, adding up to a hefty £143m in total (£176m excluding the stadium/training ground sale). The £88m loss in 2019/20 was the highest ever in the Championship. Revenue decline Since relegation from the Premier League,   revenue has dropped by £87m (68%) from £127m in 2018 to £40m, very largely due to less TV money in the Championship (£73m decrease), though gate receipts and commercial are also down £8m and £7m respectively.    Even after the decrease, #SCFC £40m revenue was still 6th highest...

Football finance guru Kieran Maguire has praised Plymouth Argyle's long-term strategy but says it will be difficult for them to become a sustainable Championship club:  https://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/sport/football/football-finance-expert-impressed-plymouth-7213288

Simon Jordan claimed on TalkSport, “Klopp’s net spend is £28m-a-year, Pep’s is £100m-a-year.  The Swiss Ramble examines this claim. In thae period since Klopp arrived at Liverpool in October 2015, City have reported £656m net spend, averaging £131m a year, which is over twice as much as Liverpool £318m (£64m average). In fact, Liverpool have also been outspent in this period by Man United £630m, Chelsea £465m, Arsenal £428m and Everton £359m. In terms of gross spend, City have spent just under a billion in the last five years, the same as Chelsea, while Liverpool’s outlay is only around two-thirds as much at £660m. Even on a gross basis, the Reds are below under-performing Man United £850m and Arsenal £676m. So Simon’s estimate of £100m annual net spend was fairly close for Pep (£115m), but significantly understated Klopp at £28m (actually £62m. In terms of wages, Liverpool are much closer to City with their £1.4 bnn in the 5 years up to 2020/21 being just 9% lower than Cit...