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Articles and reports on financial issues within football – soccer – from The Political Economy of Football.
Financially troubled Lincoln City have received a cash boost of £500,000. The club took a big hit when it was relegated from the Football League with an estimated loss of £1m in revenues. The money has been raised through share sales to individuals and businesses already associated with the club including the Supporters’ Trust. The money is likely to be used to meet running expenses.
Hearts have been charged with ‘failing to behave with the utmost good faith’ by the Scottish Premier League. The club is furious at this new charge and is contemplating legal action against the league.
Hearts was supposed to pay player wages on schedule on 16 January. The transfers were made that day, but not all of them arrived before midnight giving the league the technical grounds to bring a charge.
Both Norwich City and Swansea City are doing well in the Premiership this year despite operating on a low budget. How is this possible?
Despite having the contracts of all players and staff terminated by the administrator, Darlington FC are still alive – just. It is believed that it would be possible within Blue Square Premiership rules to re-hire them for Saturday’s match.
Joseph Cala, a little known Sicilian businessman who also has business interests in the United States, has emerged as the front runner to take over Portsmouth. He was introduced to the club by former owner Balram Chainrai.
Cala has said that he would invest £20m before floating the club on the New York stock exchange. The logic of this move is unclear as the recent trend has been for clubs to go private and it is unlikely that there would be much appetite for buying shares in a Championship football club in the United States.
There is a glimmer of hope that troubled Darlington FC may yet survive. The administrator is to hold talks tomorrow with a mystery consortium from outside the area to see if they could be valid bidders. Adam Pearson, the owner of Hull rugby league club, has denied that he is involved.
Relegation is never good news financially for any club, but it would pose special challenges at Bolton. The club is bankrolled by low profile Isle of Man-based owner Eddie Davies who made his fortune in kettle thermostats. All the club’s debt is essentially owned by him and he is there for the long term.
The former owner of Portsmouth, Hong Kong-based businessman Balram Chainrai, has put almost £1m into Portsmouth to ensure that the players’ wages are paid this month. This brings the total he has loaned to the club to around £19m.
Convers Sports Initiative (CSI) to whom Chainrai sold the club went into administration in November. The administrator has been in talks to sell Portsmouth over the past few weeks but if a deal cannot be reached soon is likely to try and find other buyers. A new owner is likely to roll over rather than pay off the debts.
The latest financial results for Dundee United reveal something of a mixed picture, although the chairman is very upbeat about them. The club is far less indebted than it was, but player sales have played an important role in keeping it on an even financial keel.
This is the comparison made by Tony Cascarino in a critical article in The Times yesterday who also throws in West Ham United for good measure.
Cascarino reckons that QPR display ‘a desperation to stay in the Barclays Premier League at all costs; a sense that the club’s future is being mortgaged to pay for the present. Big signings, big wages, big egos.’