March 2008
The Burnley Phenomenon - 16/03/2008
A recent visit to Turf Moor led me to reflect on the football phenomenon that is Burnley. As you drive down into the town, you can see most of it spread out below you. The population is 60,000 and...
'Pool Fans See DIC As Saviour - 15/03/2008
ShareLiverpool are maintaining their dream of owning the club for the fans, but in the meantime they have been having discussions with prospective bidders Dubai International Capital...
Petrol Prices Hit Fans - 15/03/2008
One of the features of modern football is fans travelling up and down the motorway network to reach games. Fifty years ago going to an away game either meant a trip or on a special train or a long trip (sometimes overnight) on an unheated coach...
Scottish Football Round-Up - 15/03/2008
Gordon Strachan on a rebrand and revamp the Scottish Premier League product, The SPL advances Gretna the money it needs to survive until the league end-of-season split and Inverness Caledonian Thistle supremo Craig Brewster on the downfall of Gretna...
The Rising Cost Of Being A Supporter - 07/03/2008
Virgin Money's latest Football Fan inflation index shows that the average British football fan across all divisions spent around £1,080 following their team in 2007...
Gretna Crisis Deepens - 07/03/2008
The survival of Scottish Premier League benefactor club Gretna is now in doubt. Just 501 spectators, a record SPL low, turned out to watch their latest defeat against Dundee United...
Livingston Goes To The Dogs - 07/03/2008
Livingston owner Pearse Flynn is in talks to sell the First Division club in a £600,000 deal. East Lothian businessman Eddie Ramsay wants to turn Almondvale into one of Britain's leading greyhound racing venues...
Battle For Control Of Liverpool Goes On (And On) - 06/03/2008
DIC, Hicks, Gillett, and now the organisers of ShareLiverpoolFC, are all bidding to take full control at Anfield...
Magpies In Financial Turmoil - 04/03/2008
Newcastle United's accounts have revealed that billionaire owner Mike Ashley had to plough £75m into the club to keep it afloat when he took over...
York Loses £1m In 4 Years - 02/03/2008
The release of accounts by Blue Square Conference club York City gives an insight into the financial challenges of running a club at that level of football...
February 2008
Non-League Football Costs Money As Well - 27/02/2008
Keeping a semi-professional non-league club going costs money: not the sums required to fund a league club, but still quite substantial sums for an individual to find...
Liverpool Sale Rumours Persist - 26/02/2008
Rumours that Liverpool Football Club may soon have new owners in the form of Dubai International Capital (DIC) continue to circulate despite a robust denial by co-owner...
Big Boost For Britain's Smallest League - 26/02/2008
The chant 'can we play you every week?' has a special meaning for the two teams in Britain's and the world's smallest football league...
Has The Benefector Club Hit The Buffers - 25/02/2008
The history of benefactor clubs that emerge from non-league obscurity into top level competitions has not been a happy one...
Scudamore Defiant On 39th Game Plan - 24/02/2008
The Premiership remains defiant over its controversial proposal to introduce an 'international round' of fixtures, despite being told by the FA board that the plan is not sustainable in its present format...
Chelsea Struggle To Meet Break Even Target - 24/02/2008
Chelsea reduced full year losses but only by a small amount. The club admitted that it faced a struggle to meet its goal of breaking even by 2009-10...
Henry Sale Lifts Arsenal Into The Black - 24/02/2008
The £16.1m sale of Thierry Henry has helped Arsenal to announce a 55 per cent rise in profits for the last six month period...
New Blues Stadium Is Still On The Agenda - 24/02/2008
Birmingham City's plans for a City of Birmingham Stadium remain on the agenda. Since the collapse of the original proposal for a £250m complex in Nechells, which would have been funded by American gaming giant Las Vegas Sands in return for a super casino site, the Blues have maintained dialogue...
Gretna Stop Paying Wages - 19/02/2008
Scottish Premiership club Gretna have confirmed that they have been unable to pay players and staff due to club owner Brooks Mileson's continued hospitalisation...
Vietnamese Tycoon Targets Arsenal - 18/02/2008
One of the richest businessmen in Vietnam has declared an interest in buying a big stake in Arsenal. Doan Nguyen Doc, chairman of the Hoang Anh Gai Lai club...
Is Playing Abroad Plan Finished? - 17/02/2008
Everyone has been piling in during the past week to condemn the Premiership's plan to play one extra game abroad each season. Mohamed bin Hammam, president of the Asian Football Confederation - where some of the most lucrative markets are located - opposed the idea...
Celtic In Robust Financial Health - 17/02/2008
Celtic's interim financial results for the six months to December 2007 show them to be in robust financial health....
Charlton Seek Bond Issue - 16/02/2008
Following the end of any talks on a possible takeover, Charlton Athletic has announced that it is seeking approval from shareholders to raise up to £20m through the issue of a new convertible bond...
Real Madrid Outpoint United In Money League - 15/02/2008
Manchester United have climbed two places in the latest Football Money League from Deloitte which has ranked the 20 biggest clubs in the world based on information for the 2006/7 season...
How To Make A Small Fortune - 11/02/2008
The old joke says that the way to make a small fortune is to start out with a large one and invest it in a football club. A salutary tale from Scotland shows how true this is...
Cherries Go Into Administration - 09/02/2008
Bournemouth are the latest club to go into administration. Given that they were re-launched as the first community club in 1997, it is worth looking at what has happened to them since then...
Playing Abroad Scheme Is Controversial - 08/02/2008
The Premiership's scheme to play additional matches outside the UK has caused considerable controversy. Ten extra games would be played at five different venues, with cities bidding for the right to stage them...
Derby Takeover: Some Unanswered Questions - 06/02/2008
£50m was the headline figure quoted as the sum available to launch Derby County as 'a global brand', but some unanswered questions remain about the deal...
Watford Lose £21.6m Over Six Years - 06/02/2008
The financial challenges that face a Championship club with Premiership aspirations are illustrated by the fact that Watford has lost £21.7m over the last six years...
Can Fan Buy Out Plan Work? - 03/02/2008
Can the plan of the Share Liverpool FC Group to buy the club from its American owners work? It has already been welcomed by culture, media and sports secretary Andy Burnham who called the plan, headed up by football academic Rogan Taylor, 'a fascinating development...'
Transfer Window Bonanza - 03/02/2008
Gross transfer spending by Premiership clubs in the January window was £150m according to Deloitte's Sport Business Group...
Pompey For Sale At £60m - 01/02/2008
The Franco-Russian owner of Portsmouth, Alexandre Gaydamak, has put the Premiership club up for sale. He is hoping to receive about £60m which would represent a sizeable profit on what he paid when he acquired full control...
January 2008
Liverpool Secures Refinancing Package - 27/01/2008
The US owners of Liverpool have completed its long-awaited refinancing, securing a £350m loan from Royal Bank of Scotland and Wachovia. The package will need to be refinanced again in 18 months' time...
Rams Set For American Takeover - 26/01/2008
Derby County are set to become the fourth American owned Premiership club, following the path taken by Aston Villa, Liverpool and Manchester United...
Relegation Hits Pars - 25/01/2008
An effort to boost the playing squad in an unsuccessful attempt to avoid relegation took its toll on the finances of Dunfermline Athletic last season, offsetting the effects of a good run in the Scottish Cup which took them to the final...
Turnover And Losses Down At Dundee United - 22/01/2008
The latest set of Dundee United accounts for the year to June 2007 showed that turnover was down for the second year running, but so was the club's operating loss which was £509,000 compared to £761,000 in 2006...
Battle To Control Liverpool Is On - 20/01/2008
Liverpool could change hands for the second time in a year as their American owners run into difficulties in refinancing £350m of debt incurred in taking over and running the club...
Liverpool Could Be Sold Again - 14/01/2008
Liverpool could change hands for the second time in a year as their American owners run into difficulties in refinancing £350m of debt incurred in taking over and running the club...
No Immediate Bonanza For Super Hoops - 13/01/2008
Although the club has been active in the transfer market, there will no be no immediate bonanza for Queen's Park Rangers fans from the involvement of Britain's richest resident Lakshi Mittal...
Luton Needs New Ground - 13/01/2008
In the short term, Luton Town have had to have a fire sale of players, but the longer-term solution to their recurrent financial problems requires a new ground...
Fans Get Shirt Refund - 13/01/2008
A class-action style competition claim over replica football shirts has been settled for less than a top player's weekly wages, damping expectations that the case would lead to a flood of similar actions...
United In Race For Financial Superiority - 07/01/2008
Manchester United is keen to correct the impression that it has slipped down the table of football's money league arguing that recent analyses of its own data and that of its rivals do not compare like with like...
Do Authorities Want To Cut Back Number Of Clubs? - 06/01/2008
Luton manager Kevin Blackwell has suggested that the football authorities may want to reduce the number of clubs. Of course, in any other industry exit and merger is a normal mechanism, but football clubs are different because they are often a core part of a fan's personal identity...
Maximising Stadium Revenue - 06/01/2008
One of the biggest financial challenges for a football club is that they have an expensive fixed asset in the form of their stadium which is used only once or twice a fortnight. Modern stadium designs have tried to get round this problem by...
Owners Ready For Wage Cap Says Rams Boss - 04/01/2008
Derby supremo Adam Pearson believes the growing influx of overseas investment could lead to a salary cap for Premiership players...
Chester City Is Not For Sale - 04/01/2008
Stephen Vaughan who owns 77 per cent of League 2 Chester City and also subsidises the financial shortfalls, resigned from his chairmanship and from the board of directors last month, but has retained ownership...
The Silent Stadium - 03/01/2008
Sir Alex Ferguson has revived the 'prawn sandwich' debate by complaining about the lack of noise from the fans in the game against Birmingham City...
|
