"If you want some accessible but informative insight into football then I suggest you couldn't do better than the Political Economy of Football website, which is not only intelligible but comes with the added bonus of being written by Addicks fan Wyn Grant." Ben Hayes - Charlton Athletic programme
Today’s Daily Telegraph has a breakdown of the current payroll for West Ham United FC. The figures published are for wages only and do not include further payments for image rights, signing on fees, loyalty fees, win bonuses or appearance money.
Below the Premiership level, a local lad made good can often be found running medium-sized and smaller clubs. Bristol City’s Stephen Lansdown is a typical example. Starting with nothing with his business partner Peter Hargreaves he built up Hargreaves Lansdown into a hghly successful business. It provides personal investment services to over 70,000 customers (I am one of them).
Debt at Hearts was up £5m to £35m in the year ending 31 July 2009. However, the club’s reaction appears to be relatively relaxed and £3m of savings saw operating losses cut from £11m to £8m. The ultimate owners, Ukio Bannas Investment Group, are planning another debt for equity sawp.
Relocation as a means of modernisation is a strategy currently favoured by a number of Spanish clubs, but it’s not all been plain sailing. Espanyol started the trend by moving from the unpopular Montjuic ground to much more up market surroundings at their sparkling new Cornella-El Prat home.
This analysis takes a very bleak view of the state of affairs and prospects for Liverpool. It is possibly too downbeat and the writer does reveal that he visited Anfield recently as a West Ham fan. Of course, some of the points are valid. Liverpool does badly need a new stadium to secure its future, although some of fhe comments made about the state of Anfield, a stadium that is rivalled for atmosphere by very few others, seem a little harsh. There has been a long h
The Independent Manchester United Supporters’ Association (Imusa) has written to all its members asking them not to renew their season ticket. Imusa believes that a significant drop in season ticket sales, and subsequently cash flow, will force the Glazer’s to listen to potential buyers such as the Red Knight consortium. The group acknowledges that not all fans will be willing to take such a move but say those supporters can also play their part by waiting as late in the day as possible before renewing.
We have been optimistic on this page for some time about the long-term prospects for Cardiff City.
Football dominates the new Sunday Times sport rich list for Britain and Ireland. 57 of the 100 on the list are drawn from the ranks of players, managers and former players. Those 57 are together worth £1.25 billion. It should be noted that the way the list is compiled leaves out owners who simply buy clubs as a financial speculation or as an expensive hobby.
Available on the BBC’s iPlayer until 7th May 2010 (UK viewers only) is a 20 minute documentary from the BBC News series ‘Our World’ about FC Barcelona.
Sheffield Wednesday may have been relegated to League 1, but a Chicago-based investment group is ready to swoop for the Owls. Contacts with Chicago links have never heard of Club-9 sports, but they could be a bespoke outfit forned for the Wednesday takeover.