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Glazers Hit Problems With Debts

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The Glazers, owners of Manchester United, are finding it difficult to refinance their huge debts against the background of the recession. There are increasing concerns about the possible impact on the club. They have been trying for some time to secure a refinancing package for part of the club’s £699m debt. There are doubts whether the £80m obtained from the sale of Ronaldo to Real Madrid will ever be reinvested in the club. The main concern is thought to be about the £175.5m worth of debt that the Glazers are personally responsible for, not the £518.7m of loans secured against the club.

The High Price of Agents

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Intermediaries are never popular in any market: think estate agents. Many fans think agents are leeches who take money away from clubs and out of the game. Figures released recently for Premier League clubs would seem to confirm their worst fears. More than £70m was paid out to middlemen between the beginning of October 2008 and the end of September 2009. Following their takeover by Sheikh Mansour Manchester City spent the most on agents, no less than £12,874,283 – one fifth of the total. Perhaps more surprising is that Manchester United spent a relatively modest £1,517,893.

Pompey Overcome Wages Crisis

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Portsmouth Football Club have secured a loan which means they can finally pay their players’ wages for November. Portsmouth also paid their players late in September. Portsmouth were placed under a transfer embargo in late October until they settle debts owed to other English clubs, although they hope to have this sorted out by the time the transfer window opens. PFA chief executive Gordon Taylor expressed his concern at the latest developments at the club.

End of MyFootballClub Dream

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Just 18 months after buying Ebbsfleet for £635,000, the MyFootballClub dream is dead. Members have voted overwhelmingly to scrap the team selector which was never used. They voted to buy the operating system from founder Will Brooks for £15,000. He previously took 21 per cent of membership fees to cover the cost of running the site. Ebbsfleet is now effectively a fans’ club. At renewals day in February, 21,000 members disappeared.

Shared Stadium for Merseyside on the Agenda

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The issue of a shared stadium for Liverpool and Everton is on the agenda again after Everton had their stadium plans turned down.  But although it might make economic sense, it is unlikely to appeal to fans and will probably not get anywhere.   Everton’s plan to build a 50,000 capacity stadium at Kirkby on the outskirts of Liverpool was turned down by the government.   The development would have involved Tesco and Communities Secretary John Denham decided that the scheme breached policy to discourage supermarket chains sucking business away from town centres. 

Rescue at Weymouth – More Trouble at Chester

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Blue Square South side Weymouth FC have been saved by the brink of liquidation by a consortium led by Chris Ryan.  Until the consortium offer it had looked as if it was really the end of the road for the Terras who are around £700,000 in the red.  But with Ryan’s consortium promising to inject more than £160,000 into the club and entering talks with the administrators to break even within 12 months, it seems football at the Wessex Stadium will continue.  Former Cambridge United chairman George Rolls had also

European match fixing scandal hits the beautiful game

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At least 200 European football games are being investigated after police said they had dismantled an alleged international criminal ring suspected of running Europe’s biggest ever match fixing scandal. German prosecutors and police stated that the gang allegedly obtained more than €10m in illegal betting proceeds by manipulating the outcomes of games in nine countries, including three in the Champions League. Peter Limacher of Uefa commented, ‘This is without a doubt the biggest scandal to ever hit European football.’ All the games under investigation took place this year.

Henry A Damaged Brand

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Thierry Henry could pay a heavy price for his hand ball that gave France victory over Ireland. Henry has been earning £15m a year from sponsorship deals. He has been the face of global brands including Renault, Nike, Gillette and Pepsi. Between 2001 and 2006 he earned a reported £14m from Nike, a company he ditched in 2006 to sign with Reebok for a signing-on fee believed to be over £19m. With a certain irony, Reebok use him in advertising campaign entitled ‘Play Responsibly’.

Top Scottish Clubs Owe £100m

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Scotland’s top football clubs are carrying debt totalling nearly £100m. Rangers and Hearts owe about £30m each, Kilmarnock and Aberdeen approximately £9m each, Dundee United £6.6m and Hibernian £3.6m. Stephen Morrow, head of Sports Science studies at the University of Stirling, said, ‘It is difficult to see, in the current trading model that Scottish football is in, how they can find a way to pay that off. That’s not to say they can’t manage that debt.

Accrington Stanley Find Saviour

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Accrington Stanley fan Ilyas Khan has become non-executive chairman at the club two weeks after staving off a winding-up order with a £160,000 donation to pay off a long outstanding tax bill.  It is said that Khan, who runs his own investment company after a career in banking, is worth tens of millions of pounds.   One of the hopes is that will be possible to build up relations with the Asian community in the area, including businesses with an Asian background.   Khan has pledged that he will settle the club’s extensive debts and provide some money for a future prom