June 2009
Conference TV Rights For Sale - 28/06/2009
The Blue Square Premiership is confident about selling its television rights after the collapse of its five year £12m deal with Setanta...
Non-League Casualties - 28/06/2009
Folkestone Invicta, themselves a 'phoenix' club that arose from the ashes of the financially troubled Folkestone, could go into administration on Monday unless they find the £70,000 they calculate they need to start next season...
Ofcom Threatens Action Against Sky - 28/06/2009
BSkyB's status in the pay-television market has come under threat after Ofcom outlined plans to force it to offer premium channels, including live football, to operators on rival platfoms...
RBS Writes To Liverpool Fans - 27/06/2009
It is perhaps symptomatic of the importance of finance in modern football that the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has taken the unprecedented step of writing to Liverpool supporters to justify its continuing financial support of the club's American co-owners...
Saints Plight Is 'Grave' - 26/06/2009
Saints administrator Mark Fry has issued a 'grave' warning that he might have to start winding up the club if he can't sell it by next Friday...
Magpies Takeover Near - 25/06/2009
Two groups are leading the bidding for Newcastle United and it is expected that a takeover will be completed by the end of the month...
Expatriates Dominate Champions League - 25/06/2009
Expatriates made up 55.9 per cent of all players, 2.1 per cent more than last season. They also played just under 60 per cent of all minutes played...
Sky Comfortable With ESPN - 24/06/2009
ESPN is owned by Disney whose market value beats BSkyB's parent News Corp by $42 billion to $26 billion dollars. Yet analysts are saying that ESPN could be an easier opponent in the Premiership live television rights stakes than might appear to be the case at first glance...
Merthyr Saved From The Brink - 24/06/2009
Merthyr Tydfil have been saved from extinction after the supporters' trust forced the club into administration...
ESPN Deal Saves Premiership's Bacon - 23/06/2009
ESPN, part of Walt Disney, has bought both the packages of live games forcibly relinquished by Setanta...
Saints Bid In Trouble - 21/06/2009
After talk last week of Kevin Keegan being brought in as manager, the Pinnacle consortium bid for Southampton is in trouble...
The Big Losers From Setanta Collapse - 21/06/2009
The Scottish Premiership, English non-league clubs and possibly the FA stand to lose the most from the prospective collapse of Setanta...
'Big Brother' Firm Endemol Cools On Setanta Deal - 15/06/2009
Production company Endemol has been considering taking a share in troubled sports broadcaster Setanta but earlier plans to be an equal partner in Setanta with Access Industries have been scaled down...
How will Real Madrid pay for Ronaldo? - 14/06/2009
Real Madrid have said that they have a €300m transfer budget his summer, but €68m went on Kaka followed by €92m on Ronaldo...
Pompey Deal: 'Not Me Guv' Says Thaksin - 14/06/2009
Thaksin Shinawatra, the former owner of Manchester City, has denied that he has a financial interest in the proposed takeover of Portsmouth...
Terras In Trouble - 14/06/2009
Blue Square South side Weymouth may be forced into liquidation after they had their overdraft cancelled by Barclays...
How Will United Spend The Money? - 14/06/2009
En route to a football workshop in Amsterdam last Thursday, I was diverted into the Sky News studios at Isleworth to give my views on how Manchester United might spend the money they have obtained from the £80m deal to sell Ronaldo to Real Madrid...
Setanta May Be Saved - 14/06/2009
Access Industries, a company run by billionaire businessman Len Blavatnik, will pay £20m for a 51 per cent stake in Setanta to help it to avoid administration...
Spanish Football Broadcast Rights Settled For Next Three Years - 12/06/2009
After three years of court cases, confusion and chaos the broadcast rights to La Liga and the Copa del Rey (the Spanish FA Cup) have been finally settled...
Will Banks Take Their Ball Away? - 09/06/2009
Football was a banker's playground for much of the last decade but have banks now reached a point where they will take their ball away and end the game?
Middle Eastern Bid For Notts County - 09/06/2009
League 2 Notts County are the target of a takeover bid from the Middle East...
West Ham Changes Hands - 09/06/2009
West Ham changed owners yesterday in a deal orchestrated by Icelandic bank Straumur-Burdaras to head off the threat of foreclosure and a damaging points deduction...
Chaos Reigns At Newcastle - 09/06/2009
Chaos reigns at Newcastle United after the club was put up for sale on its website...
Premier League and NBA Discuss Tie-up - 08/06/2009
The Premiership and the National Basketball Association (NBA) in the US are exploring a marketing and commercial tie-up that would draw on the strengths of the world's two most popular sports leagues...
Serie A The Fastest Growing League - 07/06/2009
Serie A was the fastest growing league in Europe in the 2007/8 season reveals the latest Deloitte Football Finance report...
Setanta Close To Collapse - 06/06/2009
Research group Enders Analysis estimates that Setanta's annual losses in its UK business amount to about £100m...
Wages and Transfer Spending Up - 06/06/2009
Total wages in the Premier League have exceeded £1bn for the first time as England's elite football clubs take advantage of extra television rights revenue...
Liverpool's Auditors Issue Warnings - 06/06/2009
Liverpool FC's auditors have issued a warning about the club's ability to meet soaring interest payments...
Championship Revenues Show Steady Growth - 06/06/2009
The Championship has resumed its path of steady growth, according to Deloitte's Football Finance report...
United Secure Big Shirt Deal - 06/06/2009
Manchester United have once again demonstrated their financial pulling power by securing the biggest shirt deal in football history...
Premiership Revenue Tops £2 Billion - 05/06/2009
The publication of the Deloitte report on football finance is always one of the highlights of the year for those of us interested in the business side of football and we will be providing further analysis from this year's report over the next few days....
Sunderland Doubles Turnover - 04/06/2009
Sunderland has doubled its turnover in its first year in the top flight to over £63m...
Footballers Seek To Avoid Top Tax Rate - 02/06/2009
Premiership footballers are hoping to avoid the new 50p income tax rate by asking clubs to pay their salaries as interest free loans...
May 2009
Setanta's Situation Gets Worse - 31/05/2009
Second force Premiership television provider Setanta is seeing its financial situation deteriorate and the ultimate outcome may be less money for the Premiership...
Fate of Merthyr in Balance - 31/05/2009
The fate of non-league club Merthyr Tydfil is in the balance, but it looks as if the club will go into administration tomorrow...
Accrington Face Winding Up Order - 31/05/2009
Accrington Stanley have been issue with a winding up order by HM Revenue and Customs over unpaid debts, but remain hopeful they will survive...
UAE's Sir Alan Sugar Buys Pompey - 31/05/2009
They may not be the most glamorous club in the Premiership, but Portsmouth now have a glamorous owner with deep enough pockets to help them achieve their ambitions...
Sunderland Go American - 31/05/2009
Sunderland are the latest American-owned club in the Premiership after Irish-American businessman Ellis Short acquired the club...
Bid In For Saints - 30/05/2009
The Matthew Le Tissier backed Pinnacle consortium have entered an exclusivity period with the aim of completing a buy out of Southampton within three weeks...
Latest Instalment of the Burnley Phenomenon - 26/05/2009
In October 2008 I went to Turf Moor to watch Burnley play Hull and the chairman noted in the programme that 'One year in the Premiership would set Burnley up for 10 years'...
Blades Blunted - 26/05/2009
Having failed again to secure promotion to the Premiership through the play offs, Sheffield United face their first season in the Championship without a £11.2m parachute payment...
Relegation Hits Newcastle Hard - 25/05/2009
Relegation from the Premiership is a big blow for Newcastle United's devoted fans, but it is also a big financial blow as well...
Non-League Clubs Go Bust - 24/05/2009
As we have argued for some time non-league clubs are most likely to go bust in the recession. They are often dependent on smaller scale businesses as benefactors which are most likely to be hit by the credit crunch...
Football League Wants A Bigger Share Of The Pot - 23/05/2009
The Football League wants the Premiership to increase its handouts to lower division clubs in proportion to wage rises at the top level...
Footballers To Strike Back Against 50p Tax Rate - 23/05/2009
Premiership clubs are braced for a wave of pay demands from star players in anticipation of the new 50p tax rate on higher earners...
Wigan Top Value League - 23/05/2009
It's an unlikely honour, but Wigan are champions of the Premiership in a 'points for pounds' league that measures the extent to which season ticket holders are given value for money...
Former Owner Rescues Darlo - 23/05/2009
Not so long ago it looked as if Darlington Football Club might fold but now the club has taken the first steps to survival when the businessman who put the club into administration announced he had secured a funding lifeline...
Buyer's Market For Shirt Sponsorship - 18/05/2009
Premiership clubs are facing a buyer's market for team shirt sponsorships...
Premiership Response To Government Criticisms - 16/05/2009
The Premier League has made a number of responses to government criticisms of the way it runs its affairs and whilst the proposed changes do not address the competitive balance or debt burden issues raised by culture secretary Andy Burnham, he has welcomed the Premiership's response...
Money There To Buy Clubs - 16/05/2009
The money is there to buy football clubs, but valuations will have to be more realistic. That is the view of Keith Harris, the executive chairman of investment bank Seymour Pierce...
Phoenix Club Plan in Place for Darlington FC - 10/05/2009
Quakers fans are putting in place contingency plans to create a Phoenix club in the non-league pyramid should the League 2 club fold in the next few weeks as looks increasingly likely...
Merthyr Tydfil FC on the Brink - 10/05/2009
BGB Premier club Merthyr Tydfil chairman Wyn Holloway says there is 'next to no chance' of the Welsh club surviving the summer...
Burnham Wants To Break Grip of Top Four - 09/05/2009
Culture Secretary and Everton supporter Andy Burnham has stepped up his campaign to break the grip of the top four clubs on English football...
Usmanov Upset at Treatment by Arsenal Board - 04/05/2009
Russian billionaire steel magnate Alisher Usmanov is becoming increasingly frustrated at his treatment by the Arsenal board...
Domino Effect of Stockport Failure - 04/05/2009
Unibond North league side Woodley Sports are on the verge of collapse after Stockport County went into administration last week...
Setanta Fighting to Survive - 04/05/2009
Sports broadcaster Setanta is fighting for its life as a new management team holds urgent talks to raise cash and slash the amount it pays for sports rights...
Match Fixing Allegations - 03/05/2009
Football betting specialists Blue Square are 'convinced' some players from both Grays and Forest Green manufactured the result of the final Conference match of the season between the two teams...
Arsenal Takeover Battle Edges Nearer - 02/05/2009
A takeover battle at Arsenal edged nearer after US sports entrepreneur Stan Kroenke became the club's biggest shareholder, leapfrogging Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov by paying a premium for the shares....
FIFA's 6+5 Policy In Trouble - 02/05/2009
Fifa's desire to force the controversial 6+5 blow on English clubs, which has been seen as a major threat to the Premiership, has been dealt a heavy blow by the European Commission...
Stockport County Have Gone Into Administration - 02/05/2009
Their ten point penalty will not relegate them from League 1, but they could lose more points during the summer if they fail to comply with Football League insolvency policy...
The Price of Relegation - 02/05/2009
Considerable attention is given to the costs of relegation from the Premiership to the Championship, but relegation from the Championship to League 1 can be equally traumatic...
Serie A Clubs Form Their Own Premiership - 02/05/2009
Italian football clubs look likely to adopt the English Premiership model after 19 of the 20 Serie A clubs voted to break away from the Lega Calcio...
April 2009
Cost of Being a Fan Goes Up - 29/04/2009
At least six Football League clubs have begun negotiating with a City-based investment fund in the hope of borrowing money for the close season...
New Investment Fund For Clubs - 28/04/2009
At least six Football League clubs have begun negotiating with a City-based investment fund in the hope of borrowing money for the close season...
Wenger Hits Out At Tax Changes - 27/04/2009
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has said that the era of foreign domination in the Premiership will 'soon be over' due to the declining value of the pound...
New Bid For Charlton? - 26/04/2009
South-East London club Charlton Athletic have already been relegated to League 1, but now there is a news of a possible bid which could revive their fortunes...
United Backdown Over Season Tickets - 25/04/2009
Manchester United has struck a deal to cut the number of available season tickets after an investigation by the trading standards watchdog found that the club was failing to guarantee holders a seat for every league and cup game...
MPs Want to Tighten Fit and Proper Persons Test - 25/04/2009
The All Party Football Group has called for a reform of the 'fit and proper persons' test for owning a football club...
Southampton To Fight Points Deduction - 24/04/2009
Southampton are to appeal against the ten points deduction imposed by the Football League. If they are relegated anyway, they would start their League 1 season with minus ten points...
Parliamentary Group Backs Blatter Plan - 20/04/2009
Following a year-long investigation into the state of English football, the All Party Parliamentary Group is expected to back Sepp Blatter's plan for a 'six plus five' rule...
Mixed Fortunes For Non-league Clubs - 20/04/2009
Updates on the latest goings on at Salisbury City, Ebbsfleet United and Team Bath football clubs...
Ownership Issues Bubble On At West Ham - 19/04/2009
The ownership situation at West Ham bubbles on, but the bottom line is that the club is likely to have a secure future with Gianfranco Zola as manager...
New Mystery At Saints - 19/04/2009
With Southampton continuing to face the prospect of relegation to League 1, mystery surrounds a business set up in the name of Southampton Football Company Ltd. which has a former player as its only director...
Fulham Cut Losses - 18/04/2009
Fulham made losses of £7.5m in the year to 30 June 2008, but this represented a halving of losses of £15.2m in the previous year...
Clyde's Future in Doubt - 14/04/2009
Relegation-threatened Scottish first division club Clyde FC are in serious financial trouble and face eviction from the Broadwood Stadium in Cumbernauld new town on April 26th...
Interest Payments Keep United in the Red - 12/04/2009
Manchester United set a record for a British football club for full year sales in the year to June 2008...
Anyone Want To Buy a Conference Club For £1? - 12/04/2009
Is there anyone interested in buying a debt free, mid-table Conference club for £1? If you are, then get in touch with Salisbury City...
Team Bath Quit - 12/04/2009
The college sports team is a standard feature of American life and is particularly important in sports such as American football and basketball...
Setanta Looks For Funds - 12/04/2009
Pay-television company Setanta has held a fresh round of talks with private equity firms in a bid to raise up to £100m following its failure to retain both of its Premiership rights packages beyond 2010...
Easter Day Matches Kick Off Row - 11/04/2009
A row has broken out between leading religious figures and the Premiership over the staging of fixtures on Easter Day with strong letters of complaint being sent to the Premier League and Setanta...
Ben Foster's Old Club May Fail - 10/04/2009
Midland Alliance side Racing Club Warwick has called in the administrators...
Big Losses at Pompey - 09/04/2009
Portsmouth made losses of £16.66 m in the 2007-8 financial year, despite winning the FA Cup...
They're Dancing in the Streets of Raith - 09/04/2009
Kirkcaldy's Raith Rovers are supported by prime minister Gordon Brown and like the prime minister, they face a struggle with unpleasant financial realities...
Orient's Dilemma - 07/04/2009
Since Barry Hearn took over at Leyton Orient in 1995, Brisbane Road has been transformed beyond recognition...
Why Administration is Common - 05/04/2009
Going into administration is a very common reorganisation device for football clubs. Research by John Beech at Coventry University says that since 1986 there have been 68 cases of clubs in English leagues becoming insolvent, some of them more than once...
Taxman Goes After Image Rights - 05/04/2009
HM Revenue and Customs are launching a clampdwn on the way top footballers are paid. They have begun a fresh wave of investigations into so-called 'image rights' payments by Premiership clubs to their players...
Real Fears For Southampton's Future - 02/04/2009
Real fears are being expressed that Southampton Football Club may not exist by the end of the season despite the fact that it has a new stadium and plays in a large and relatively prosperous city....
Spurs Modify Stadium Plans - 01/04/2009
Tottenham Hotspur have released images of their planned new stadium to be built next to White Hart Lane...
March 2009
Battle for Arsenal Hots Up - 31/03/2009
The battle for control of Arsenal has taken a potentially decisive turn after leading shareholder Danny Fiszman sold a third of his stake to American sports franchise owner Stan Kroenke for £42.5m...
Fantasy Football Team Comes to Grief - 29/03/2009
It looked like a dream come true for Ebbsfleet United (formerly Gravesend and Northfleet) when the MyFootballClub scheme was set up, but Ebbsfleet is now threatened with relegation from the Conference...
Darlo Came Close to Folding - 29/03/2009
Darlington came close to being the first Football League club to cease playing during the recession this weekend...
Liverpool Supremo Reviews His Assets - 28/03/2009
The July deadline for Liverpool co-owners George Gillett and Tom Hicks to refinance their £350m loan with Royal Bank of Scotland and Wachovia is looming on the horizon...
Swindon Exemplifies Lower League Problems - 28/03/2009
Lower league clubs are increasingly talking of big cuts in the size of their squads in the summer, the problems they face are exemplified by Swindon, lower mid-table in League 1...
UEFA Denies Fair Play Tax is Attack on Premiership - 28/03/2009
Uefa have denied that their plans for a fair play tax are the latest shot in a campaign to undermine the English Premiership. Europe's richest football clubs, many of them in England, would have to pay a luxury tax on their star players...
Ridley Returns to Rescue Weymouth - 28/03/2009
I thought that the television programme that ran some five years ago about the challenges facing Weymouth was one of the best warts-and-all programmes that has been produced about football in recent years...
Compensation Claims Against Hammers Multiply - 21/03/2009
If West Ham thought they had finally settled the Carlos Tévez affair with an out-of-court settlement to pay £25m to Sheffield United, they were sadly mistaken...
Football Levy Called For in Germany - 19/03/2009
Bayern Munich general manager Uli Hoeness has suggested each household in Germany pay an extra two euros a month to put German league football back on terrestial television...
Fall in Copper Price hits Zambian clubs - 18/03/2009
Four clubs have lost their sponsorship from companies in Zambia's Copperbelt...
Lower Level Troubles - 17/03/2009
I was rung by a leading national newspaper today about the financial problems League 1 and League 2 clubs. There are fears that as many as six could go into administration in the next few weeks...
Liverpool's Commercial Problems - 14/03/2009
Liverpool FC may be on track for what their fans hope will be another Champions League triumph which would offset their less satisfying Premiership performance. However, in progressing as far as they have, they are punching above their weight financially...
Blatter Forecasts Economic 'Tsunami' - 13/03/2009
Blatter argued, 'Football has yet not so much been touched by the first wave of an economic tsunami. But the second wave will touch football, especially with the sponsorship of club football and sport in general...
Stockport County in Trouble - 13/03/2009
League 1 side Stockport County have hit financial problems and considerable efforts are being made to prevent the club going into administration...
Sweden Beat US on Penalties to Win Algarve Cup - 12/03/2009
Sweden beat the United States 4-3 in a penalty shootout in the final match of the tournament after the game ended 1-1 at full-time...
Where the Recession Hits Football - 10/03/2009
In many respects, football has rode out the recession reasonably well so far. The latest Sky television deal has maintained its value, even if ITV and Setanta want to cut back their payments to the FA...
West Ham Play For Time - 09/03/2009
West Ham United's Icelandic owners are hoping for a three months' breathing space to complete the sale of the club...
TV Companies Want to Cut Cost of FA Contract - 09/03/2009
Following significant falls in revenue and profits, ITV is seeking to renegotiate its contract with the Football Association...
Mixed News For Troubled Non-league Clubs - 09/03/2009
Non-league clubs are particularly vulnerable in the economic downturn and there has been mixed news recently for those in difficulty...
Bournemouth Bid Not A Done Deal - 08/03/2009
The seven figure bid by a Middle Eastern consortium for relegation threatened Bournemouth is far from a done deal...
February 2009
Big Profit At Argyle - 13/02/2009
Plymouth Argyle made a profit of £1m last year despite funding the highest wage bill in the club's history...
Football Well Placed To Weather Recession - 12/02/2009
Attendances are holding up well across European leagues, although several clubs are changing prices to ensure that their stadiums are full while others...
Rangers Insisted They Won't Lose Out - 11/02/2009
Rangers have insisted that they won't lose out even though sponsors JJB Sports have been hit with financial problems...
1860 Munich Faces Financial Crisis - 10/02/2009
1860 Munich, one of the Bundesliga's founding teams, faces immediate financial problems after the club said that investors brought in to turn it around had provisionally pulled out...
The Scolari Sacking - 09/02/2009
The expensive sacking of Luiz Felipe Scolari as Chelsea manager shows just how important the Champions League has become to top Premiership clubs...
Troubled Times For Dorset Football - 08/02/2009
The top three clubs in Dorset are facing troubled times...
Premiership Money Bonanza - 08/02/2009
Forecasts that the Premiership bubble would burst in the credit crunch increasingly look premature, if not misplaced altogether...
Platini Determined To Limit Spending - 07/02/2009
Uefa boss Michael Platini is determined to level up the playing field in football by introducing restrictions on spending...
Investor Walks Out On Linnets - 05/02/2009
Conference North outfit King's Lynn FC have suffered a major blow...
Sky Seals TV Deal - 05/02/2009
Sky has paid more than £1bn to secure its position as the main Premiership broadcaster...
Transfer Record Broken - 03/02/2009
Spending by Premiership clubs on new players in the January transfer window has hit a fresh all-time high...
Gulls In The Black - 01/02/2009
Torquay United, who were taken over by a consortium of eleven local businessmen 18 months ago, turned a £470,000 loss in 2006-7 into a £10,407 profit...
January 2009
Arsenal Can Cope With Loss Of Champions League Place - 30/01/2009
Arsenal's chances of an assured Champions League place appear to be dwindling, but chairman Peter Hill-Wood has reassured fans about the financial implications...
Football In South London - 26/01/2009
Clubs south of the river have enjoyed brief flurries of success, perhaps epitomised by the rapid rise and subsequent collapse of Wimbledon as a London club...
Liverpool Deal On The Cards - 25/01/2009
Once again the situation surrounding Liverpool Football Club is confused...
Big Losses At Newcastle - 24/01/2009
The depth of Newcastle United's financial problems has been revealed with the first set of accounts from Mike Ashley's spell as owner...
Everton Hit By Stadium Setback - 23/01/2009
Things may be going well on the pitch for Everton, but there are more problems off the pitch...
United Seek New Sponsors - 21/01/2009
As expected, the troubled US insurance group AIG which has been bailed out by the US Government will not be renewing its shirt sponsorship deal with Manchester United...
Chelsea Deny Sale Reports - 19/01/2009
It was claimed that an emissary of Roman Abramovich had gone to the Middle East seeking potential purchasers...
Jamaican Football Clubs Under Pressure - 18/01/2009
Despite the increased sponsorship money negotiated by the Premier League Clubs Association, the majority of the 12 participating clubs in Jamaica's Digicel Premier League, are bracing for the worst...
Tangerines Make Big Profit - 17/01/2009
Dundee United made a £834,000 profit in the twelve months to June 2008, compared with a loss of £989,000 in the preceding period...
York City Make 413K Loss - 16/01/2009
York City have announced a loss of £413,590 for the year ending 30 June 2008. Loan interest, amounting to almost £200,000, represents a significant proportion...
Gloomy View of Spanish Football - 15/01/2009
A study by a professor of finance and economics at the University of Barcelona, Professor Jose Maria Gay, takes a gloomy view of the future of Spanish football...
Madoff Scandal Cost Newcastle Deal - 11/01/2009
An American investor was closing in on purchasing Newcastle United until the Bernard Madoff scandal...
Scottish Clubs Under Pressure - 09/01/2009
As we have argued, football north of the border has taken a big hit from the credit crunch with proportionately more clubs under threat...
Big Losses At Charlton - 07/01/2009
Relegation threatened Championship side Charlton Athletic have reported big losses in the year to June 2008...
TV Bidding War Is On - 04/01/2009
Just before Christmas officials from the FA Premier League sent out invitations to brodacasters to tender for the television rights for the three seasons starting in August 2010...
Morecambe FC Transfer Embargo Enforced - 03/01/2009
Rules in League 2 state that no more than 60 per cent of a club's income can be spent on wages...
|
