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WG Huddersfield Town, who won promotion to the Premier League by beating Reading on penalties, are a much smaller club in financial terms than the Royals. Reading have annual revenues of £26m and Huddersfield £11m. Reading’s wage bill is £31m and that of Huddersfield £13m.
Both clubs, it will be noted, pay out more than 100 per cent of their revenue in wages, but that is not unusual for Championship clubs trying to win promotion. Huddersfield lose £5m a year.
More than £35,000 was staked on Arsenal shares in ‘suspicious’ trading activity minutes before news broke of Alisher Usmanov’s bid to take full control of the club.
The trading history on the NEX Exchange, the unregulated market on which Arsenal’s shares are listed, shows two trades went through just before the market closed on Friday. One worth £17,200 was made just after 3pm and the other worth £18,200 shortly before 4 pm.
The takeover of Portsmouth Football Club by former Walt Disney chief executive Michael Eisner has been approved. 80.3 per cent of the members of Portsmouth Supporters’ Trust who own 48.5 per cent of the shares voted in favour of the deal. Of the club’s ‘presidents’, who hold the remainder of the shares, 75 per cent voted in favour.
‘Silent Stan’ Kroenke may face a hostile reception from some Arsenal fans if he attends the FA Cup final on Saturday as anticipated. Some supporters want him to step aside after minority shareholder Alisher Usmanov made a £1 billion offer for his 67 per cent stake.
After Kroenke Sports & Entertainment said that it was a ‘committed long-term investor in Arsenal’, the Arsenal Supporters Trust said that the use of the word ‘investor’ showed that Kroenke was only interested in making money.
Leicester City’s owners, King Power, have reached agreement to buy OH Leuven, a Belgian second division team.
What the relationship will be with Leicester City is unclear, but it could serve as a feeder club given the number of high quality players Belgium has produced in recent years. It could also be used to give experience to Leicester players.
A decision is at last near on whether QPR breached financial fair play regulations in winning promotion to the Premier League three years ago. The dispute with the Football League will be heard by an arbitration panel made up of three QCs at a hearing next week.
Manchester United has lifted revenue and profit guidance for the year. Reporting its latest quarterly results, it said that it expected ‘a strong finish to 2016-17 both on and off the pitch.’ It announced projected revenues of £560m-£570m for the year, up from £530m-£540m.
United fell into an operating loss of £4.1m in the three months to the end of March from a profit of £23.2m in the same period last year. Net income also fell into the red at a loss of £3.8m from a gain of £13.7m in 2016.
The Times has constructed a value for money table for each team in the Premier League. It compares each club’s annual wage blll with the number of points they have won. Tottenham Hotspur come out best with £1.30m paid per point. Manchester United come last with £3.57m per point.
Liverpool paid out £2.85m per point, Arsenal £2.83m, Manchester City £2.76m and Chelsea £2.56m.
Manchester United’s players will be £38m better off if they beat Ajax in the Europa League final next week. Under the club’s unusual pay policy, automatic qualification for next season’s Champions League would mean that United players would get a 25 per cent pay rise. They would also receive a £1m bonus under the club’s performance incentive scheme.
Darlington fans have blocked the return to the club of controversial former owner Raj Singh. He was in charge when the club went into administration in 2012.
Darlington have made operating losses of £80,000 this season and Singh announced that he was prepared to invest £40,000 in the club. Supporters took to social media to protest and, as a result, Singh decided to withdraw,
As a consequence of his withdrawal, and the reasons for it, a second potential investor also decided not to continue discussions.