Billericay Town sold

Billericay Town FC has been sold to former manager Grant Gordon.   However, existing owner Steve Kent retains a stake as only 60 per cent of his shares have been sold.   He said that there had been other offers, but he was not comfortable with them.


Reports give no indication of the sale price, but it is unlikely to have been the £3m originally mentioned when the club was put up for sale.


 

Wise investment at Reading

Reading fans may have disappointed by their defeat at Chelsea last night after going ahead, but their new young Russian owner has promised that he will adopt a prudent attitude to the clubs’ finances, investing wisely.

Anton Zingarevich denied that his father was part-owner of the Royals.   He sees Reading as one of the best investment opportunities in football.   Their location just outside London meant that they were best placed to attract corporate sponsorship.

Top footballers enjoy 1,500% pay growth

Top footballers’ salaries increased 1,500 per cent from the formation of the English Premier League in 1992 to 2010, according to a report from the High Pay Centre think tank.  Over the same period, average UK wages rose 186 per cent.   Players’ wages account for up to 70 per cent of a club’s turnover, compared with 48 per cent in 1997.

You’re supposed to be at home

It’s a long time since football fans could walk or take a short tram or bus ride to the ground.  Rightmove have surveyed over 13,000 football fans to find out what proportion of each clubs’ fans are local to their stadium.

The Premier League’s most local fans are Wigan Athletic with 65 per cent of their support living in the same postcode district as the DW Stadium.   Not surprisingly, the least local were Manchester United fans with only 9 per cent living in the same postcode area as Old Trafford.

Soros buys big stake in United

Famous international financier George Soros has acquired a 8 per cent stake in Manchester United.  He is not to known to have any particular interest in football so must regard the shares as a better investment than the markets seem to.   The shares closed $13.06 on Monday, down 6.7 per cent since the IPO. Whether the defeat at Everton will register on the New York stock exchange remains to be seen.

West Ham still affected by Tévez affair

According to David Sullivan West Ham are still being affected by the Carlos Tévez affair which happened five years ago.   United won £26.5m in damages in an out-of-court settlement in March 2009.   West Ham still owe £10m to Sheffield United which is payable over the next year.

Sullivan said that the repayment burden had affected his transfer budget despite bringing in seven players this summer for a net outlay of around £6.5m.