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Premier League clubs once again dominated the international transfer market in 2013, topping the 1billion US dollar-mark for the first time, according to Fifa in its 2014 Global Transfer Market report. Transfers were up 51 per cent in value and Fifa attributes this to big television deals.
The path that Sky takes in the future as it faces up to the competitive challenge from BT will influence how much the Premier League obtains for its television rights and hence the income of top clubs.
A wholesale deal with BT – with each company making its channels available through the other’s packages – could remove the risk of spiralling sports rights packages. This would tend to hold back the growth of Premiership income.
Arsenal has secured its biggest commercial deal in the form of a five year kit agreement with German sportswear company Puma. Terms were not disclosed, but are believed to be slightly more than the £150m contract signed in 2012 with Emirates to extend the airline’s sports sponsorship and stadium naming arrangements.
Puma will replace Nike as Arsenal’s kit supplier from July, ending a 20 year association. Puma have acquired the rights to produce Arsenal-branded merchandise, as well as the club’s training and first team kits.
A hedge fund headed by one of the financiers who failed to buy Manchester United four years ago is betting against the club’s New York-listed shares. Marshall Wace, one of the world’s biggest hedge funds, stands to reap a profit worth millions of pounds if Manchester United continues to perform as poorly on the stock market as it is doing at its Old Trafford home.
Paul Marshall, one of the founders of Marshall Wace, was a member of the Red Knights consortium which in 2010 launched a campaign to persuade Manchester United’s owners to sell the club.
The recent Deloitte annual Money League report shows how important the commercial segment of the revenue of top clubs is becoming. An average of 41 per cent of the revenues generated by the top 20 clubs came from commercial sources.
Match day sales now account for only a fifth of revenues. At AC Milan, it is as low as one tenth. Even broadcast revenues are now behind commercial revenues, their share falling from 42 per cent to 37 per cent.
Overall FA Cup crowd sizes across all rounds have remained fairly steady since falling during the 1980s. Attendances throughout the leagues have risen in that period.
Of the 57 matches played in the third and fourth round this season, including replays, only one quarter (14) attracted attendances higher than the home team’s average league figure this season.
Admittedly, the third round (before replays) this year produced the highest average attendances since 1979-80, yet this largely reflected the number of well-supported teams playing at home.
The financial rewards of the FA Cup with Budweiser are limited, certainly at this stage of the competition.
When Rochdale played Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday they had a police bill of around £30,000. With 45 per cent of the gate receipts, they will make around £35,000.
If the game had been televised, they would have got an extra £144,000. However, the televised games tend to be those involving the clubs with the biggest number of fans. If they had won, they would have received £90,000.
Hereford United have avoided a winding up order by settling their outstanding bill with HM Revenue & Customs. However, they are not out of the wood as they have wages to pay at the end of the month and a further tax bill to meet in the not too far distant future.
In a statement on the club website the board said, ‘As well as our continued work to reduce costs on a day to day basis, we also need to increase fundraising activates to generate around £10,000 extra per month for the remaining months of the season.’
Barclays Bank is considering not renewing its £40m a year sponsorship of the Premier League as it is not seen to deliver ‘value for money and ‘zero value in the UK’. The bank is engaged in a thorough review of its global operations.
The bank’s present deal runs until the end of the 2015-16 football season and members of Barclays’ leadership team are concerned that rapid price inflation for sports rights will mean a much higher amount will be demanded by the Premier League for the next three-year deal.
The acquisition of a 80 per cent stake by Manchester City in Melbourne Heart is being broadly welcomed in Australian football as an opportunity to shake up and reinvigorate the game down under.
The past few years have been relatively frugal and, at times, uncertain. Football Federation of Australia finances have been in a mess that necessitated a government review in 2011, the Central Coast Mariners have had documented financial issues and the Heart have been on the market for some time.