"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
Articles and reports on financial issues within football – soccer – from The Political Economy of Football.
Cardiff City’s troubles continue. The club is facing a fresh winding-up petition over the £1.3m it owes HM Revenue and Customs. The club insists that the bill will be settled this week, but if it isn’t Cardiff City could face a court appearance on August 11th, just days after the opening match with Sheffied United on August 8th.
Talks between lawyers on the future of Serie A club AS Roma were suspended late last night and will resume on Thursday. After a poor start to last season, Roma fought back to finish second behind Inter. AS Roma ranks twelfth in the Serie A revenue league with income of $146.4m. They have a fervent following in the capital city, but have had to share the Olympic Stadium, which they do not own, with bitter rivals Lazio.
The baclklash against the Premier League is one part of the blame game for England’s early exit from the World Cup. Northern Ireland manager Nigel Worthington is the latest person to pitch in and suggest that the number of foreign players in the Premiership holds back the development of foreign players.
The Football Association was under pressure from the Coalition Government over its governance structures even before England’s exit from the World Cup. These pressures have now intensified. But in addition to those problems the FA faces serious financial challenges.
In summary these are:
1. Sponsorship deals are on a four-year cycle and are about to run out. Will sponsors be enthusiastic about renewing?
This interesting blog post discusses whether part-time football might be the way ahead for the lower levels of the Scottish league system, given low attendances and the costs involved in travelling to away matches.
Preparations for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil have run into difficulty. Half of the stadiums that are being built or re-modelled are behind schedule. That is nothing new as far as major sporting events are concerned – Fifa had to inject some extra money into the preparations in South Africa. However, what is perhaps more worrying is that insufficient progress is being made in upgrading the country’s infrastructure, particularly in relation to airlines and airport terminals. Standards in these area
Will the World Cup actually do very much for South Africa’s economy? Even the temporary boost to the economy from additional visitors may be illusory. There are reports that the number of visitors is well down on those expected, but let’s take the original foirecast of 373,000 visitors staying an averae 8 days.
Portsmouth have agreed a Company Voluntary Arrangement with their creditors with over 81 per cent voting in favour of the deal. HM Revenue and Customs are not happy about the outcome and have 28 days in which to decide whetyher to appeal to the courrts.
At one time Grimsby Town FC (who actually play in Cleethorpes) were in what is now the Championship, but they have since been relegated to the Conference. However, after the chairman of the Conference stated that the two clubs being relegated this year were in a financial mess, the chairman of Grimsby Town has strongly refuted these claims which caused some anxiety among Grimsby fans. He has pointed out that the club has a ‘healthy’ overdraft and any debt is benign debt owed to
We upset some Rangers fans by suggesting that the bid by the Andrew Elllis consortium was going nowhere, but now the club has been taken off the market. The Ellis bid was frequently talked up, but seemed to be more about publicity than substance.